


Ocean's Edge

by tinknevertalks



Category: Sanctuary (TV)
Genre: Case Fic, Established Teslen, Family, Gratuitous use of Welsh, Gratuitous use of space, Hurt/Comfort, I don't think the London Sanctuary is a TARDIS but I certainly treat it like it is, Mentions of PND, Multi, Post Series, Telepathy, Time Loop Shenanigans, UK adventure time, Whump, abnormals
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-09
Updated: 2019-01-12
Packaged: 2019-07-28 16:59:07
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 11
Words: 51,294
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16245947
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/tinknevertalks/pseuds/tinknevertalks
Summary: With rumours of sirens in West Wales, Helen and the London based team are off to find out what's what.





	1. Prologue

**Author's Note:**

> So here we are, the start of the 2017 NaNoWriMo fic. It is complete, but still being edited, so updates will be as and when I can get each chapter sorted. I hope you enjoy.

“Hey Eifion, can you hear that?”

Two men stood in front of The Ship, sipping their beer in the quickly cooling October air, coats not done up but flat caps on. In their wellies and denim, they looked out over the beach toward the sea. The setting sun coloured the sky every hue of red and gold imaginable, with slashes of purple merging with the darkness, stars glinting bright white in the inky blue dark.

“Hear what?”

The first man shrugged. “I'm not sure. For a second it sounded like bells.”

Eifion rolled his eyes. “Don't be so soft Ids. No bells around here... Unless Dew's closing early.”

Idwal snorted. “Close early? There's only one reason he'd close early.” He paused, this routine almost as old as Idwal and Eifion themselves. “Death.”

They sipped their pints sedately.

“There!” Idwal's head started moving, searching the horizon for any clue. “Really, didn't you hear that?”

“Idwal...” The words died on Eifion's lips. His eyesight, being a touch better than Idwal's, had seen something wash up on the shore. “ _Beth yn y byd_?”


	2. Chapter 1: Setting The Scene

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which we meet our heroes and get our basic set up.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ok, so here's the part where our faves come in. Have borrowed a tech idea from _Warehouse 13_ (but a bit more _Sanctuary_ ;D). Hope you enjoy! :)

“Oh please please please lemme come too! It's so close to home and I've not been that way in ages!” Llinos begged Declan as they walked the wide corridors of the London Sanctuary.

“I'm not even sure what's happening, Lin,” he replied, prodding the button for the lift. “It could just be drunken rumours. We've nothing to tie the case to an abnormal.” They stepped into the lift, Declan bristling slightly at the piped music assaulting his ears.

Lin took out her earbud, one already hooked over the neck of her t-shirt, and let it hang loose as she spoke. “People in Cardigan Bay are hearing bells!”

Declan shrugged, turning to his newest hire. “And?”

She huffed in frustration. “It's local legend! If you hear the bells, someone is going to die.” She bounced from foot to foot, trying to think of the words. “I know, logically, that it can't be the legend, that there's a perfectly normal, vaguely boring explanation for all this, but it's bells! In Cardigan Bay! Every kid along the coast has heard the story. Heck, most of Wales knows the story.” The lift had arrived at their floor. Marching forward, Declan almost left Lin there as she fiddled, busily shoving one earbud back where it should be, but he held the door open for her. “There’s even dead bodies! I don’t know how many exactly at the moment, I’m still waiting on the reports, but bodies. Not one, multiple! People hearing bells and dead bodies? Please!”

Declan sighed. “What’s the legend, then?” he asked, as they trooped into his office, glancing at the tablet he kept close.

Lin stopped short. “Cantref Gwalod? Y-- You're asking me...? Ok, ok, uhm…” She started pacing, trying to remember everything from primary school. “Right. So, years ago, like centuries ago, Wales wasn't the shape it is now. There was arable land between Ynys Enlli and Fishguard, and a whole bunch of people living there. Because it was under sea level, they had watchers, for the sluices, to keep the water out so people wouldn’t drown.”

“Then what happened?” he asked, sitting behind his desk.

Lin shrugged, dancing slightly to the music she had on her phone, leaning on the back of her chair. “The usual; massive party, someone not guarding the dams, the tide rushing up too fast to the revellers, then thank you and goodnight. The bells were rung to warn everyone but only a few people escaped, and the sea completely flooded the whole area, making Wales the shape it is today.” Shaking her head, she added, “There was always a feeling of Atlantis about this place whenever we had to do work on it.”

Declan smiled slightly, nodding. “We’ll keep an eye on the situation from here. Have... What?” Lin had taken her seat, eyes blinking owlishly to closed. Declan stood up and walked around the desk, about to check her pulse, when her eyes opened again, as clear as they were before. “Company?” he asked, keeping his hand away now that she was back to her usual self.

Lin nodded. “Three, from the way two of them are thinking.” She looked up at Declan, who was now leaning against his desk. “There aren’t many beings, normal or abnormal, that I can’t read.” Her phone pinged. Looking at it, she grinned. Holding it up, she made Declan read the screen.

He grumbled, “You know I can’t read that.”

“Nothing wrong with wearing specs, Decs.” She chuckled quietly. “Specs, Decs. Anyway… We have visitors!”

“Well I got that much Lin, who is it?”

She kept grinning at her phone as she tapped in a few commands. “You’re getting stressed if you can’t read the code.” She put the handset away. “Erika’s here, with Doctor Magnus!”

Declan nodded, crossing one booted foot over the other, his arms folding across his chest. “Is the third Alice?” he asked, head down.

Lin shook her head, smiling. “I could read Alice that time she came up before… Doctor Magnus feels really happy but there’s some tension there too.” She looked sideways out of the window, trying hard to read their third.

They were quiet for a minute, then it was Declan’s turn to grin, the memory of Magnus' short missive flooding his mind, realisation radiating from him. “You’ve not met Magnus’ resident vampire, have you?”

Lin’s eyes went wide. “No, I haven’t… You saying…?”

There was a polite knock on the open door. “Where’s everyone hiding?”

Lin turned in her chair, looking over the back of it. She’d only “met” Doctor Magnus once, a year and a half ago (when Declan first hired her), over the internet with a video call. ‘ _If Magnus gives the go ahead…_ ’ And of course she did. Lin had a feeling she would’ve had the job regardless - with London now the semi-public face of the Global Sanctuary Network, tenuously protected as they were by royal decree, having a telepath on board made sense.

That Lin could hack just about anything was just icing on the cake.

But to see Magnus now almost took her breath away. Or maybe it was just her presence? Either way, something crushed against her mental barriers, pressing so hard on her chest that her breathing became rapid, almost pants. “Declan…?” she whispered anxiously, popping her other earbud in with one hand and indicating her need to leave through the other door with her thumb.

He nodded, and Lin was out of the room like a shot.

“Is she still having difficulty with her telepathy?” Magnus asked as she walked into the room, both Head of House and Network Leader watching the young woman’s escape.

Declan smiled genially, and shook his head. “Adjustment time. I’d give her an hour.” He took in the scene before him. Magnus stood solidly next to the fireplace, hand out to the fire crackling in the hearth. Tesla, on the other hand, prowled around the office, reading the book spines, before standing behind Magnus’ shoulder, facing him.

“Was that Professor X?” he asked quietly, more to Magnus than anyone else.

“Nikola,” she admonished, just as quietly. She had turned her shoulders to him, and Declan indulged in a small, mental chuckle. Why anyone would willingly deal with Tesla he couldn’t understand, but she did, and it wasn’t any of his business (but she looked happy). “Erika’s meeting with Lin before heading to the lab with the few pieces she mentioned needing.”

“They’ve probably started walking down by now,” Declan replied. “D’you still want to check in on Sugar Sweet? It's what the vets have named the unicorn,” he explained to Tesla, having seen his blank face. “Her pregnancy is coming along quite well.”

Magnus nodded. “After a short rest…”

“Rough trip?”

“Something like that,” Magnus answered, not quite glaring at Tesla.

“I maintain, had I not been distracted, my magnetic field wouldn’t have affected the Fffff…” Tesla tripped over his words, confusing Declan with his sudden lack of verbal fluidity. “Do we really have to call them that?” he whispered, turning his body slightly to exclude his unwanted audience.

“Call what that?” he asked, garnering a baleful glare from Tesla.

Magnus’s smile blossomed as her eyes sparkled. He knew she was about to drop something interesting in his lap. Tesla groaned. “I’ve had Henry and Nikola work together to invent a new method of communication.”

“Cell phones still work in an emergency,” Tesla muttered, facing the fireplace.

“So do autotypes, but seeing as one has to be a walking magnet for it to work, and one is enough--”

“Oh, I care for you, too,” he murmured, turning from the fire, holding his hand to his chest, nodding a little.

“-- We need a better method of communication,” she finished, as if Tesla hadn’t spoken. She dug around in her coat pocket for a few seconds, before bringing out a burnished bronze coloured cuboid, the size of a regular smartphone. Opening it, tapping a button, the screen came to life with all the design elements of the Sanctuary mainframe. Taking a few steps over to Declan, she handed it over, saying, “We’re calling them the Fosslas at the moment.” She winked. 

Declan nodded, glad he didn’t flick his eyes up to look at Tesla’s reaction. “You could always call them the Teslosses,” he suggested, his tone mischievous. His phone vibrated. “Excuse me,” he said, handing Magnus her Fossla and taking out his own, boring smartphone.

“Tell them to call them the Farnsworth!”

Declan held the phone away from his ear for a second, eyes wide at the volume of his technician. “Lin?”

“Or give each handset a code name! Erika’s here in the hall and I had my phone out and she just showed me hers, and holy moly it’s amazing! Henry and Doctor Tesla have done something super awesome here!”

Declan looked up to see Tesla preening and Magnus rolling her eyes with an indulgent smile on her face. “Say it louder Lin, I don’t think they heard you at the palace.”

“Oh ha ha.” The line went dead.

Declan sighed. Magnus looked over at him, the previous indulgence slowly becoming worried. “Problems?”

Declan shook his head. “Just forgot how noisy she can be when she gets hyper.” Putting away his phone, he asked, “D’you want your usual quarters?”

\--

“You hate dance music,” Erika pointed out to Lin an hour later. With the music blaring, they sat side by side, fiddling with the new Tesla/Foss phone (the moment Erika heard Lin call it a Farnsworth she grabbed it and hadn’t let the name go). Lin half-heartedly bopped her head to the bass, enjoying the noise but thoroughly disliking the interference in her head.

“Yes, I really do, but everytime I call this,” she held up the Farnsworth, “the Fossla, you spike nostalgic sadness and it’s really distracting. So unless you can suggest a genre or artist that isn’t going to make you think of dear _li’l Henny_ , we’re keeping the Avicii.” Turning over the burnished box, Lin huffed in frustration and opened the screen on her own phone. Fiddling, Avicii stopped suddenly and Nicki Minaj took over. Lin smiled broadly at Erika. “Ok, fine. I like her more…” She sighed. “Much better.”

Erika smiled back wanly. “I still don’t understand how you can speak with the constant music, let alone think.”

Lin shrugged. “I have so much noise in my head, the music cancels it out. Nicki’s ok; she says so much in such a short space of time.” She paused, deliberating on her next words. “I don’t like how everything’s bitches and hoes but I takes what I gets.”

“What about orchestral?” Erika asked, taking the Farnsworth from Lin, opening it to show the small amount of workings inside.

Taking the casing back, Lin replied, “Depends on the music. Mozart tends to block young people, but around here I’m better off throwing on Sleeping Beauty or The Nutcracker. Unless Dec’s in a mood. Then nothing but bubblegum pop stops tha-- what?!” Lin had snapped her head up sharply, technology forgotten.

“What?” Erika asked, wide eyed.

“Why the spike?”

“Spike?”

“Yes, spike.” Lin narrowed her eyes. “First the weirdness with the Farnsworth, now the giggle spikes?” Shaking her head, she moved back from the table. “Nope, nuh-uh, no way. Tell me no--”

_The kiss against her lips, large hands against her shoulder blades and lower back, thumb stroking her spine, the smell of leather and cotton_

Erika chewed her lip and smiled apologetically whilst Lin (over)dramatically covered her eyes and sung along to Nicki Minaj until the image and sensations dulled. “Sorry,” the older woman offered.

“Declan?” she gasped. “Seriously? MacRae of Sunshine and Mancunian Sass? Wh-- what?!”

Erika shrugged. “I think he’s from Blackpool.”

“He’s from the North, it’s close enough!” Lin screeched. “Stop it!”

“I can’t!” Erika complained. “You know how hard it is to not think on a subject.” She held her head in her hands. “I can’t stop my thoughts, I’m sorry!”

Lin sighed. “Sorry… Hang on.” Connecting her headphones to her phone, the room hollowed, empty without the barrage of melody, the song now tinny from the earbuds. Popping one in her ear and dragging her chair closer to Erika, she put her elbow on the table, her head on her hand (holding the earbud in place) and prodded Erika with her phone. “How did you hide…? Never mind, just go for it. Unload. No-one else here and the guilt is really distracting.”

Erika sighed, brushing her long hair over one shoulder. “Henry and I broke up.”

“Duh. Known that for a while,” she replied.

“I didn’t love him.”

“Oh… Kinda gue-- But you fancy the bossman?” Erika nodded. Lin pulled a face. “You really fan-- Oh god Erika! Stop reminiscing!”

_Lips where shoulder meets neck, rough fingers tangled in long hair, bites, pants, gasps_

“I do not want to see Declan MacRae’s sex face!” Lin all but yelled. “How have you even seen that face? Ugh. That’s the boss!”

Erika shrugged. “He isn’t my boss.” Sighing, she rubbed her hands together, her arms straight out in front of her. “You weren’t here when Alice was first born. I had had… difficulties… Henry and I both had difficulties. I disconnected from everyone but Alice. If she was well, everything else was…” She shrugged again. “Henry and I were barely speaking… I was barely speaking, save for with Doctor Magnus.” She paused a moment, her nostalgic confusion slowly blanketing the pair. “I knew if I spent time with my lycan family, the others who’d lived in Oldham, I would feel better. Henry was against it for the longest time, I think he was worried something would happen.” She shook her head. “I knew I had to get out of there.

“The next time anyone went up to the surface, I went with them, Alice too. SCIU didn’t have my passport flagged. Maybe I should have found odd? I was just... grateful to be in natural sunlight again.”

“Alice had a passport back then?” Lin asked, bemused.

“That’s the detail you dwell on?” Erika asked, with slight consternation. “We falsified a few documents as she was born down in the Sanctuary, took pictures, and by the time we were above ground again, her passport was there waiting for me.”

“Cool,” Lin replied, obviously wondering what this had to do with Erika doing the horizontal mambo with her boss.

Erika smiled. “I’m getting there. Alice and I arrive at Heathrow, and Declan’s there, waiting, because, “There weren’t any other cars.” Ow,” Erika rubbed her throat, her impression of Declan growlier than she expected. “And it’s… Nice. He’s not looking at me worried that I’m going to break, or change, or anything. I’m not even sure… how we started… flirting?” Erika made a face, smiling a bit sheepishly at Lin's disbelieving crook of her eyebrow. “Ok, I know how we started flirting. I don’t know how, between Alice’s feeds and changes, we started…” She flushed, giving Lin half a second to shore up her breaker, stopping images coming through although the sensations were just as strong.

“Wow,” she breathed.

Erika nodded, wide eyed. “It felt really good…”

“But?” Lin prompted after half a minute’s silence.

“We knew I couldn’t stay there. I knew I shouldn’t have done… _that_ … with him. Henry and I were never…” She rolled her hands. Lin nodded her understanding. “But the expectation was there, I think.”

“So what did you do?” Lin whispered.

“I ran. I bundled Alice into a taxi the next day and caught a train to Oldham. Aunt Lillian is out on parole so we stayed with her. I… I didn’t want Henry to have any hint of anything so I… I burnt the clothes I had been wearing.”

“Would he have been able to smell Declan on your clothes after you washed them?” Lin asked incredulously.

Erika nodded, then shook her head. “Not really, but I was so worried, I needed something I could control.”

“What did your auntie think?”

Erika shook her head again. “It was close to Bonfire Night, and some of the children on aunt Lillian’s street needed clothes for the Guy, so... Guy was a bit more feminine that year… We stayed with aunt Lilian for a few months but I felt imprisoned. I missed the Sanctuary, in an odd way, and I missed Henry. I got back to Hollow Earth, and for the first year or so things were brilliant. He didn’t suspect a thing, Alice was growing, I felt like myself again.”

“But something happened?” Lin prodded after a few minutes of almost silence, Nicki still rapping away in her ear. She didn’t need to be a telepath to see Erika had more to say.

“We started arguing. Little things at first, how to wire the LAN, who was feeding Alice, red or blue… Then it got bigger and bigger. We started arguing about everything. Even Doctor Tesla noticed, and he’s usually wrapped up in Doctor Magnus and his experiments.” Erika moaned. “It was very embarrassing having the woman Henry looks to almost as a mother asking if everything was alright between us.”

“I bet. ‘No Doc, everything's not alright. I don’t like your surrogate son anymore but I fancy the pants off of your Sanctuary leader in London. Permission to shag?’”

A bark of laughter escaped Erika’s lips. “Really Lin, I don’t sound anything like that.”

Lin raised both eyebrows and looked pointedly at her. “Ok, so you’re more posh English than me, but my point still stands. What did you say?”

Erika smiled sadly. “I told her I wasn’t happy anymore. Neither of us were, but neither of us wanted to be the one to break up our family. I shouldn’t have worried. Doctor Magnus said we’re all family, even if we, ‘weren’t a stereotypical family unit’.” Erika’s demeanour and voice changed a bit as she mimicked Magnus. “I moved into the room the other side of Alice’s nursery and I’ve been there since. The atmosphere has been… awkward, on occasion. Less so recently.”

“That’s why you’ve come,” Lin surmised. “You want to see if there’s actually anything there with Boss man, or if you just imagined it in some postnatal haze.” 

Relief radiated from Erika as she nodded, glad the younger woman understood, “We’ve been emailing for the past year, but this is my first proper visit without Alice since they started.” She took a shuddering breath. “I think I was just worried.” 

Lin nodded, and said, “I’m going to give you a hug now, because I think you really need one.” Wrapping her arms around Erika’s shoulders, Lin rocked them back and forth. “Is that why Alice is still down with Henry?”

Erika nodded again. “We discussed it before she was born, and again when we split up, and we came to the conclusion that we’d both like her to go to school here in England, so she’s going to be spending the holidays with him, school term with me.”

“Wow,” Lin breathed. “That’s like… super hard.”

“We know,” Erika replied. “But I’m not going to deny either of them the other. What sort of mother would I be? I’m going to be taking her away from the family she knows, so…” She shrugged, and her worry battered Lin’s breakers. “What if I’m making a huge mistake?”

Lin just kept rocking them, knowing she’d end up eating her own foot if she said anything personal. So she went for the one thing she could get away with. Holding up the Farnsworth, she asked. “How far’s the range on this thing?”

\--

“Who knows, maybe now that Wolfette and Baby Bites are relocating, we’ll be able to sleep at night,” Nikola murmured as he and Helen lay in bed. She really did need to rest before looking in at Sugar Sweet, but curling up and talking with Nikola came a very close second. Although, he was giving in to a predilection for gossip, which Helen found both endearing (he said he hated people yet here he was) and exasperating (these were people they worked with; she should be able to walk through the halls without worrying about what her staff thought of each other).

“Nikola, you can’t blame our lack of sleep on a four year old,” Helen replied, her head on his shoulder.

He sighed. “I suppose you’re right.” He kissed the top of her head.

“You suppose?” she asked sleepily, the smile evident in her tone. “Still, it’ll be strange without them there. Erika’s a boon with the Abnormals, and Alice…” She snuggled closer to Nikola.

“I know,” he murmured. Stroking her hair, he kissed her head again.

“Having Alice around reminds me…” She let the sentence peter out, as they both knew who she meant.

“What was she like?”

“As a child?” Helen drew swirls with her finger on his other shoulder as she thought. “Fearless. Happy. Warm. Stubborn.” She laughed. “She’d throw the biggest temper tantrum if we didn’t let her clean the bowl after making cakes. And for the longest time she wouldn’t sleep anywhere but in my room. She said it smelt like me... She drank strawberry milkshake through two straws.” Helen smiled in recollection. “For my hundred and forty fifth birthday she and Henry made my cake. It was awful - neither of them had heard of an oven timer - but they were so proud…” She grew quiet again. “Nikola?”

“Helen?” he answered, echoing her tone of inquiry.

“I--” The Tesla made phone started chirping. Helen jumped slightly, then reached over Nikola to grab it. “What did she call it? A Farnsworth?”

“Much better than Fossla,” Nikola grumbled as Helen opened it, still sprawled over his abdomen. “What is it?”

“Just a message from Will, asking if we arrived safely and to, ‘Please bring back a few boxes of Coco Pops.’ I swear that’s all he thinks about when he hears ‘London’.” Closing it and putting it back on the nightstand, she faced him again, smiling. “I know it’s not what we planned, but I’m glad you’re here.”

“Oh really?”

She nodded, stretching up so their eyes were level. “Yes. You make a splendid pillow.” She kissed his cheek. “Now, be quiet and let me sleep.”

\--

Sugar Sweet was progressing just as Helen had expected. “Nathaniel and Daisy have us right,” she said to Declan, complementing the vets as the unicorn ate a sugar cube from her hand. She whickered her thanks, nuzzling Helen’s hand. “Now, why has Henry sent me a message saying, ‘Oh my God, there are sirens in Wales? Can I get a recording? Do they sing about pasta?’” Helen shook her head. “I don’t quite understand that last one.”

“Lin mentioned something this morning, before you arrived. There wasn’t anything concrete about them actually being sirens the last I’d heard.” Holding out his hand, he helped Helen to her feet. “We’ve been a bit busy with some of the larger abnormals though. We could head to Lin’s lab now, see if she’s got anything new?”

Nodding, Helen watched as Declan walked from the clearing like enclosure. Something wasn’t sitting right with him, but she’d be blowed if she knew what was wrong.

She caught up to him at the lift. “Is everything alright?”

Declan rubbed his hand over his face once he’d stepped over the threshold of the carriage. “Nothing crucial. A few personal things.”

Helen’s eyes went wide, then she nodded, a small smile in the corner of her mouth. “Erika.”

Years of training must have stopped him from looking sharply at her, she surmised. As it was, he just glanced slowly at her. “Erika?”

“She said that you offered her somewhere to stay whilst she found her feet. She’s been really looking forward to this.” Helen said this nonchalantly, watching covertly.

Declan kept his eyes forward, “That’s good.”

She smiled fully. “Whatever’s happening, it’s between the two of you. I shall be quite at ease boarding the plane at Heathrow tomorrow evening, with Nikola in tow, and leave everyone to it for a week.”

Declan’s cool facade broke as he sniggered slightly. “Only a week?”

Helen’s smile widened. “Maybe two, if things go the way I think they will.” She outright grinned at the face Declan made. What he thought she wouldn’t dignify with a guess, but she knew there were some ruins just outside Bangui - they’d caught Nikola’s attention and they were due an adventure. If it went the way their adventures usually went, they’d be neck deep in danger by the second day.

She couldn’t wait!

They heard the music the moment the lift doors opened. It was gentle, almost folky at times. “She’s homesick,” Declan surmised. “Or hinting that we should go to Cardigan. Wes--”

Helen smiled tightly, “I know where Cardigan is.” They started walking. “Does she get homesick often?” she asked quietly as they moved.

Declan shook his head. “She misses the smaller things but overall she’s happy.”

“Sorry Boss Man, couldn’t call mam and wanted to…” Lin looked up and noticed Declan’s company. Her cheeks suddenly flushed. “I can turn it down.”

Both shook their heads, Helen’s gaze calculating. “You couldn’t sense me?”

Lin’s blush deepend. “I was singing along so I wouldn’t...” She shook her head, not looking at Helen. “Doesn’t matter.” She smiled nervously.

Helen smiled back. “We’ve not been formally introduced. I’m Helen Magnus.”

“Llinos Price. Please excuse me not shaking your hand. Last time I shook a stranger’s hand I had a headache size of mount Everest for a week.”

Helen nodded. “Understandable. Declan tells me you know something about this siren outbreak on the Cardigan coast.”

Lin nodded, bopping slightly to the music. “If sirens have the power to affect a village, then yes, I know about the siren outbreak.” She smiled, hand hovering over her phone and it’s control of the music before changing her mind and carrying on with her info dump. “There’s been more than a fair few reports of bells being heard along the coast, centralising around the area of Tresaith, but going so far south as Mwnt and as far north as Llangrannog, and usually at or after sunset.” She shrugged. “Because of that a lot of the reports have been made by regulars at the pubs. Some people here,” she glared comically at Declan, who rolled his eyes just as genially, “decided it wasn’t good enough that so many slightly intoxicated people had experienced this over a period of seven weeks.” 

She walked around to her monitors, one showing the Sanctuary’s defences, the other with reports and electronic post its on them, Helen following silently, making sure not to get too close. “And they’re not the same people reporting, and no pattern. Could you step back please? I’m getting some odd feelings, which means the music isn’t working or…” Helen nodded, stepping back a little, watching Lin breathe a bit easier.

“Or?”

Lin made a face, showing her confusion and frustration. “Or something else is wrong and I’m gonna have to be a hermit for a year again.”

“A hermit?” Helen asked incredulously, as Declan asked, “A year?”

Lin waved away their concerns, “I doubt it’ll happen like that. _Siarad Cymraeg_ , Doc?”

Helen blinked. “I had family in Wales at the turn of the century… Twentieth century,” she explained, “so it might be rusty.”

“Ah! No worries then!” Her smile beamed brightly with relief. “You should’ve said. The Welsh stops working if the person I’m trying to block knows Welsh too. It’s usually why I have Radio Cymru on when I’m tired.”

“But today you were homesick...”

“So I put on whatever I had on my phone because I don’t really like the early evening stuff. Too much talking, not enough decent music.” Lin shuddered. “Where was I? Oh yeah, no pattern. Young people, old people, locals, late season tourists using the coastal path, English, Welsh, Spanish, American, male, female. They’ve all but one heard bells.”

“All but one?”

Lin nodded, her blue eyes bright, “Yes. A Japanese lady said she found a body on the beach, but heard Watatsumi, a dragon from Japanese legend, rather than bells.”

“How many bodies?”

“Reported so far? Twelve. All in various states of decomposition. Eww, by the way, the pictures were gross. The three different pathologists all reported, what was the-- ah!” Words filled the screen closest to them as she clicked open a post it. “‘ _Peri-mortem tears to the dermis on the arms, shoulders and chest._ ’ Those pictures were also disgusting, hang on.” Clicking on a few icons on screen, Lin brought up the images. 

Helen, used to carrying out post-mortem examinations, had no difficulty looking at them objectively. “These look like a group of talons rather than one individual claw. And look at the grouping on the collar bone there,” she pointed at the puncture marks. “It’s almost as if a giant bird lifted the victim off his feet before killing him.”

“What’s the best bit?” Lin asked, her eyebrows furrowing, before shaking her head and changing her music and putting one of her earbuds in. “Nicki Minaj,” she explained. Declan nodded whilst Helen blinked and shook her head. “She swears more than Declan when he… Never mind,” Lin explained, stopping when she saw Declan’s face. His eyes were wide. Obviously something Helen wasn’t meant to know, but she’d let it rest for now.

“They’re being eaten,” Helen explained. “Look, you can see the teeth marks around the shoulder joint, and in the fleshy part of the abdomen.” She pointed to what she was seeing, Lin leaning in slightly before moving back.

“Somehow, even though I didn’t actually know that you’d say that, I knew you’d say that,” Lin moaned, holding her stomach and grimacing. “Why is that the best bit?”

“It means they are actually sirens, and not something pretending to be.” Helen smiled. “I hope you don’t mind my saying, Declan, but this could be fun. A telepath who uses music to block thoughts, abnormals who lure people with songs.” She raised her eyebrows meaningfully, making her eyes look even bigger than usual.

“Wait, does that mean…?” Lin asked. Declan groaned then nodded. Both he and Helen watched in amusement as Lin did a dance that looked like the cross between a victory jump and the oft forgotten hide me dance. “Uhm… Huzzah? I don’t want to meet a siren! I just want a road trip to Tresaith, maybe pop in for tea with mam and dad, or Elin. I don’t want to get eaten!”

Helen narrowed her eyes, looking at her critically. “I highly doubt that would happen. Declan will be there, as will Nikola and I... “ She shrugged, her face relaxing. “We might even get Erika involved.”

Lin nodded. “Ok, yes, good. Plenty of people for them to gorge themselves on whilst I run away and hide in the car.” Helen stared at her, aghast. Lin shrugged, eyes downcast. “This will be my first proper adventure. I don’t usually get to go on bag and tags.” She scrunched up her nose. “This is going to be a bag and tag, yes? With stunners and nets and stuff?”

“Llinos…” he growled warningly. Then, with a sigh he added, “Yes, a bag and tag with stunners and stuff,” as he pinched the bridge of his nose.

She nodded. “H'ok.” Brightening before their eyes, she smiled. “So as long as I get a big stunner, I’ll be happy. And yes, I know I’m a strange one Declan, no need to think it.”

“Keeping you on your toes Lin,” he replied, rolling his eyes and smiling.

Lin bounced from foot to foot for a moment before saying, “Can you both go now? I need to sort out some things.”

“Music?” Helen asked, tilting her head slightly.

Lin nodded. “Itinerary too. I get to drive Mitsi.” She really did do a victory dance then.

Helen turned to Declan. “You still call that four by four Mitsi?”

He shrugged. “I have a call to make in my office so I’m going to save face and not answer. Lin, guv.”

Helen watched him leave, not expecting Lin’s mumbled commentary as she popped in her other earbud, “Last time he’ll try to drink me under the table.”

“What?” she asked incredulously.

Lin looked up, blinked when she realised Helen was still there and removed the earphone. Helen repeated herself and Lin replied, “Oh.” She blushed. “I told him I don’t get drunk. I physically can’t. Alcohol doesn’t affect me, or my sister… It doesn’t affect a lot of the family actually, as far as I’m aware.” She shrugged. “About a month ago I told Declan that. He didn’t believe me. Spaniel - Nathaniel - had to help me get him to his quarters.”

“I take it there was a bet involved?” Helen asked, raising her eyebrows and half smiling.

Lin nodded slowly, “Don’t get angry at him--”

“I wouldn’t,” Helen interjected, feeling the smile blossom fully on her face.

Lin nodded, smiling back uncertainly to begin with. “Ok… Well, he bet that if he outlasted me, I’d be doing his feeding rotation with the Abnormals in the SHU for a month. I… I said that if I outlasted him, I had a free pass to drive his massive Mitsubishi once. He complained of a headache for the next few days, but outright denied it was a hangover.” She shrugged. “Anyway, I’d been saving it for a while but this would work brilliantly. We could pack loads in the bed bit, and all of us in the passenger compartment. Much more comfortable than the van.” She rubbed her hair, making the short blonde locks stick out at odd angles and grinned. “And I can control the music if Radio One's pants.”

\--

“Declan?” 

The voice that followed the knocking was soft through the door, but he knew to whom it belonged. Padding over the carpeted floor in his socks, he opened the door and smiled. “Erika.”

“I hope I’m not intruding,” she said politely, hands folded in front of her.

“Not at all,” he replied, eyes warm. “Come in?” he asked, holding the door open and sweeping his arm in welcome.

She nodded, and crossed the threshold, catching his eye and smiling, only ever so slightly bashful. 

He smiled himself, bowing his head happily as he shut the door. Turning, his smile grew wider as he drank her in. They’d been talking for the last year or so, but to have her here, alone, in the flesh? Everything in him said cross the floor, hold her, kiss her, make her stay, but something held him back. Nervousness? Excitement? Anticipation?

He felt himself breathe in. As the air left his lungs he realised he was walking to her, her arms open to welcome him wholeheartedly. Wrapped in each other, he kissed her, like a drowning man gasping for air, his hands in her hair, tangled in her silken strands. Rubbing his fingers, he revelled in the texture of her locks, the taste of her lips, her warmth plastered against him, her hands on him.

“De… Declan…?” she half stuttered, half moaned, joy threaded through his name. He smiled against her pulse point, wanting to hear that sound again and again. “Declan…”

“Yes?” he answered, trailing his hands up and down her spine, feeling her curl toward his questing fingers.

“Should we… maybe… slow down?” she asked between kisses, her smile infectious.

Nodding, Declan answered, “Yes… maybe…” his kisses longer but still as fervent.

“Tomorrow?” Her tone was hopeful, her neck arching to give him more access to the sensitive skin there. “Start slow tomorrow?”

He pressed her close again, smiling against her lips. “Much better idea.”

A while later, tangled in the duvet and each other, Declan reached over and stroked Erika’s cheek. Her skin felt soft and smooth beneath his fingertips.

“What?”

He shook his head. “Just glad you’re here.” He placed a small, gentle kiss against her lips, meant to satiate rather than inflame the senses. “Very glad.”

She smiled, kissing his palm. “As am I.”

\--

“What am I thinking?”

Lin let out a small shriek, not expecting company in the kitchen. “Don’t do that!” she yelled, before realising who had spoken to her. “Doctor Tesla… H-- hello.”

He grinned and she couldn’t help think of a shark. “What am I thinking?”

She shrugged. “There’s not enough wine to drag you to Wales?”

Tesla blinked, grimacing slightly. “Helen said you couldn’t read me.”

Lin baulked. “You were really thinking that?”

He shook his head. “No… No, much too plebeian.” He looked around the kitchen. “Although, now that you mention it…”

“There’s a merlot breathing in the drawing room,” Lin told him, hoping he’d leave soon. “I had pulled it out for myself, but you’re welcome to it.”

Tesla’s eyebrows raised appreciatively. “Far be it for me to keep a lady from her wine.”

“No, you’re cool. Go for it,” Lin replied, holding herself tight, smiling wanly.

“Well this was boring. Don’t you do anything else?”

She shook her head. “Sorry. I hack, read thoughts and drink wine. There’s not much more to me than that.” Grabbing her phone from the countertop, she turned back to the fridge, hoping vampires were like bees - if you ignore them they don’t sting. “Or was that wasps?”

“You’re talking to yourself,” Nikola muttered, looking for a wine glass.

“Top right cupboard, best glasses. Declan saves them for important guests.”

“And what do you use?” he asked, seeing a dozen glasses, the thinnest layer of dust on them.

She pointed to her cup, next to the fridge. “That way no-one gets funny ideas.” She dragged out her quarry - a granny smith and a lump of cheese -before shutting the door. “If I use a cup, no-one thinks about joining me, and I get twenty minutes peace and quiet.”

“Is it always that cup?” he asked, sneering slightly.

“Unless there’s a forgotten cup of tea in it, yes,” she replied sharply, putting down her food with a clatter. “Can you go away?” she asked, getting a knife from a drawer.

“Why? My shining personality not to your liking?”

Lin ground her teeth, forcing herself not to stab the vampire in front of her. “I can’t read you. It’s really weird and my brain doesn’t like it.” She sat at the small table, rubbing her head tiredly.

“Well, welcome to the real world, missy,” he replied, quietly.

Looking him up and down, she asked, “What’s the problem?” as she slowly peeled her apple. 

“Problem? None.” He sat next to her. “Apart from not being able to read me, what’s yours?”

Lin put the knife to one side and let her head fall to the table. “It’s nothing.”

“Sure, that’s why you’ve printed the wood grain into your forehead,” he drawled.

“Can you drop it? It’s nothing,” she stressed, rubbing her eyes.

The shark grin was back. “Now I really want to know. Wait, let me guess. You have a crush on MacRae of Light? Wolfette? Both!”

“Ugh, neither!” she all but yelled. “Kudos on MacRae of Light though. Classy.”

“Thanks, but that won’t distract me. You’ve got writers block? You’re trying to distract yourself? You’re--”

“Currently in the midst of having a massive freak out about being in the car with the great Helen Magnus tomorrow,” she interjected quickly, already tired of his asking.

“Is Helen driving?” Lin shook her head, confused. Tesla grinned. “Then why are you worried?” He shook his head. “Never mind. Merlot in the drawing room? Wonderful. Rest, Counsellor Troi, Helen doesn’t bite.” He winked. “Not unless you ask first.” And with that, he was out the door. Groaning, Lin thudded her head against the table.

She really didn’t need that image.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Too long? Not long enough? Suggestions, thoughts? Lemme know down below. :D


	3. Chapter 2: Travelling

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Travelling from London to Tresaith takes a long time. Thank goodness Declan knows some good jokes, and both Erika and Nikola have spare books to read.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Chapter two! It's here! So no-one said anything either way about chapter length, so I'm probs gonna have this one as long as chapter 1, but the next ones will probably be shorter (unless you're all chill with the long chapters). As before, this isn't beta'd, so if you catch any mistakes, let me know. Hope you all enjoy. :)

The plan had been pack Mitsi the Mitsubishi in the afternoon, pack bags in the evening, leave the Sanctuary at half past nine the next morning, after feeding the abnormals and breakfasting themselves.

Lin had two checklists: her usual one, given by Declan that had all the things they’d need for a mission of this size, and her, ‘Oh God I really don’t want ‘killed due to massive bird’ as my cause of death!’ list. Declan’s list had the usual things - stunners, laptops, combat gear, a thermos of hot water for tea or coffee, milk powder for coffee, first aid kit, radios, a second pair of boots per person… The usual.

Lin’s list was a bit more tailored to her needs: phone full of music (she’d be damned if she’d ever buy an iPod), noise cancelling headphones, Maltesers, phone charger, backup phone with various predator sounds, confetti, bird seed, a selection of cds (in case everyone complained about the music on her phone and the radio), three pairs of penguin socks because penguins, ear warmers (the coast in November was not a warm place), fingerless gloves, and spare woolly hats for everyone (people had even less control of their thoughts when they were ill, or cranky, or cold).

She was taking no chances on her first ever bag and tag.

So when oh-nine-thirty hours arrived, and only two of their party were there, she just walked around the car as Magnus half sat, half leant against the boot.

“Where’s Barnabas Collins?” Lin asked, coming to join Magnus when she realised walking did nothing for her nerves. She hopped up and sat in the bed of the boot.

Magnus shot her an odd look before decoding Lin’s inquiry. “I had actually thought he’d be here before me…” Her cheeks flushed imperceptibly and Lin’s eyes went wide.

_ “I’ll see you at the car,” he growled quietly against her wet neck. _

_ “Or we’ll never leave this room?” she asked between gasps wrenched from her lungs at the sensations his fingers were eliciting. Cold droplets of water trailed down her back as hot lips and hotter breath buffeted her cheek. _

_ “Something like that…” _

Lin gasped, the echo of warmth suffusing her body. “Oh my god, I’m really didn’t need that!”

Magnus’ cheeks didn’t get redder, but she watched as Lin tried to control her breathing. “My apologies. I may not be a telepath but I can certainly be more circumspect with my thoughts...”

Lin shook her head. “No, it's my bad.” She wrapped her arms around her waist, holding herself away from Magnus. “Before I left home, I had a handle on it. I could go shopping, walk around town, talk to strangers…” She laughed, self-deprecatingly. “Mam said I might have problems down ‘that Lun’un’.”

“Is your mother a telepath too?”

Lin nodded, then groaned, asking rhetorically, “Seriously, did anyone keep it in their pants in the last twelve hours?”

“Good morning,” Erika greeted them as Magnus stepped away from the car and Lin took her bag.

“Sleep well?” Lin asked, watching the play of emotions on her features, feeling them change as they happened. Erika glanced to Magnus who didn’t smile but didn’t frown, face passive but open to a degree, back to Lin. Her cheeks flushed and a small, hopeful smile graced her lips as she nodded. Lin smiled back. “Say no more. Have you seen Bites McGee or MacRae Gun on your travels?”

Magnus snorted as Erika shook her head, laughing. “No, sorry.”

“I am not worse than Nikola,” Lin argued at her boss.

“It’s how she shows she cares,” a dark voice said from behind Magnus. “Hello.” Lin turned away as Tesla touched Magnus’ elbow, looking at Erika again.

_ ‘Tesla?’ _ Erika thought loudly at the younger woman.

Lin made a bit of a face but said nothing.

Erika’s eyes went wide. “Magnus?!”

Lin’s own eyes went just as wide when Magnus asked, “What’s wrong?” as Erika thought,  _ ‘Sorry sorry sorry!’ _ in a round for Lin’s mind.

“Nothing worth mentioning,” Lin replied just a bit too quickly for comfort, mentally begging the floor to open up beneath her and swallow her whole. Especially when both Tesla and Magnus looked at her like that, like a science experiment congealing in a test tube when it really shouldn’t. “Oh thank god,” she muttered. “Declan’s here!”

“Sorry,” he directed to Magnus, “Tomoyo called from Tokyo. The tanuki were turning to stone again…”

“Not a problem, Declan. We’ve only to pack your bag and Nikola’s and we’ll be on our way.”  _ Finally. _

Lin snorted. Magnus tilted her head and tried not to smile openly as both men put their bags in the car (Declan threw his, Tesla slid his next to Magnus’).

“Next stop, Magor services!” Lin called as she made herself comfortable in the massive four by four. Moving the seat forward, she sighed happily when she remembered it was an automatic.

“Why Magor?” Erika asked, sliding into the front seat.

Lin turned and smiled at her, watching as she put on her belt. “Reading is too close, as is Leigh Delamare. Magor is the other side of the Severn bridge, in God’s own country. We can wait three hours before needing a pee.” She looked at the three in the back, not needing to be a mind reader to see the tension radiating off Declan at the thought of her driving his baby (his hulking, gigantic baby - there was still room in the boot for half a pig and a week’s worth of shopping).

“Right, has everyone got everything, or do we need someone to dash up and get something?” Lin narrowed her eyes. “Whoever is thinking of stealing my Maltesers, stop.”

“Oh,” Erika sighed from her seat, making Lin laugh.

“Ok. Wales, here we come!”

\--

Except it wasn’t as easy as Lin had expected. It took them almost an hour just to get out of London. The spikes of ire from both Magnus and Declan almost made Lin swerve to a parking spot and yell at them to try driving out of this godforsaken city.

Tesla murmured something in Magnus’ ear - Lin couldn’t hear exactly what over Nick Grimshaw and Clara Amfo chatting about television on the radio - but her spikes stopped battering Lin’s mind. Without Magnus’ constant deluge of emotion (for someone so restrained, her mind was always aglow with thoughts and feelings and sensations), Declan’s thoughts, familiar after a year and a half of working together, could be tuned out.

“Rock all day-er?” Lin asked the radio, turning up the dial. “Score!” 

“Does it need to be on quite so loud?” Magnus asked, leaning over as Marilyn Manson sang out over the speakers.

Lin shook her head. “Ah, sorry, gimme a mo.” Fiddling with the controls, and after asking Declan for help, the back became blessedly quiet, whilst the volume at the front stayed constant. “Is that better?”

Magnus nodded, sitting back and dragging out a tablet and her Farnsworth, Tesla already engrossed in a novel. Bopping along with the music, Lin kept her eyes on the road. People were driving like idiots, but the radio kept her calm.

“What do the Irish call their garden furniture?” Declan asked, breaking the awkward silence that had descended.

Lin looked at him through the rear view mirror, before glancing at Erika, who shrugged. “Dunno, what?”

Declan flushed slightly.  _ ‘I’m doing this because the silence back here is awkward and I didn’t pack a book,’ _ he thought as loudly as he could. Lin blinked her understanding. He gave a small cough, and now even Tesla and Magnus were looking at him. “Paddy O’Furniture.”

“Really, Declan?” Magnus groaned, hiding her face in her tablet whilst Erika and Lin giggled like school children. “That’s worse than two elephants fall out of a tree.”

“Boom boom,” Lin answered, trying to keep her laughter under control. “Did either of them have a glass?”

Magnus smiled but shook her head. “Why?”

“Boom-boom tsssssh,” Erika explained, remembering the same sort of jokes from her childhood.

Lin grinned. “Why did the mushroom go to the party?”

“... Ah! I know that one!” Erika replied.

“Because he was a fungi!” Lin, Declan, and Magnus chorused in various tones of enjoyment (Magnus tried to hide it but was smiling indulgently at the younger members of the group, whilst Declan was trying to act like a responsible adult in the midst of the joke competition he had inadvertently started).

“How many actors does it take to change a lightbulb?” Lin asked a few minutes later, indicating left and glaring at the car in front who also turned. “Not got any indicators, mate?” she grumbled, fingers tightening momentarily on the leather of the steering wheel.

“No, they expect everyone to be mind readers,” Declan grumbled from the back, knowing the frustration of indicator-less drivers well.

“Don’t they realise my range doesn’t extend that far?” she asked, shaking her head.

“Well?” Tesla asked, finally deigning to drag himself away from his book.

“Well, what?” Erika asked as Lin carried on grumbling.

“How many actors?” he asked.

Erika swivelled in her seat to look back at him. “Don’t you…? One,” she explained, “they don't like to share the limelight.”

Tesla shook his head in askance. “That’s a terrible joke.”

“Declan knows better ones but he’s being tidy because the boss is here,” Lin dropped into the conversation.

“Tidy?” Magnus asked, her gaze meeting Lin’s in the mirror.

“Clean, polite… You know, jokes you’d tell your teacher or your mum.” Lin grinned. “Or ones you'd tell your boss in the hopes someone will hand you a book and say, ‘I was done with it anyway.’”

With a flurry of movements, Erika and Tesla both handed him a book, chorusing, “I was done with it anyway.”

\--

“Where on God’s green earth did you, Miss Oldham Prim and Proper, learn that joke?” Lin randomly exclaimed as they joined the M4. She didn’t turn to look at her as the motorway was fairly busy for a Thursday morning, but her eyes were wide with shock at her friend’s humour.

“The breathing one? Either Abby or Kate,” Erika replied.

“Do I even want to know?” Magnus asked quietly, but not with any real negativity. “Or is it a, ‘Don’t tell the boss,’ joke, even though the boss has heard much worse?”

Erika looked at Lin, following her lead slightly, though Lin couldn't understand why. Nodding, Lin smiled through the mirror at Magnus. Erika, grinning, asked, “How can you tell a man’s excited?”

Magnus nodded, grinning back. “I like that one. Bit tame... Kate had a range of filthy jokes.”

“Whoever is thinking the about the nun joke, stop it,” Lin commanded, giggling, watching Magnus shrug (both Tesla and Declan were engrossed in their respective books). “Erika? Hope in her soul? Really?”

“That was me,” Magnus admitted, sitting forward. The music got louder as she got closer.

“I had the bicycle one,” Erika admitted, blushing slightly.

“Filth mongers, the pair of ya!” Lin exclaimed. “D’you know the cannibal one?”

“Which one?”

She pointed at Erika, grinning. “That’s the one!”

Erika turned back to face Magnus. “Two cannibals are sharing a human… Wait.” She looked at Lin, seeing Declan out of the corner of her eye smirking slightly. “That’s vultures, Lin.”

“Either way, they were sharing,” Lin responded.

“She knows that one,” Nikola muttered, turning the page.

Helen nodded, smiling slightly. “To be fair, I have lived a long time.”

“Even to hear the one about cannibals eating a clown? Or the four spring duck technique?”

“Four spring duck technique?” Magnus echoed, extremely confused as she didn’t know that joke.

Lin started jiggling in her seat. “I get to tell you a joke? Ok, ok, so the head of Audi--”

“No, Llinos,” Declan intoned, looking up from his book. “No-one is drunk enough.”

“I never get to be drunk though!” she complained.

“Have Nikola mix up his special,” Magnus suggested, reminiscing slightly.

“Isn’t that the one he made when he lost his job at SCIU? Henry told me about that…” Erika said.

_ Oh, not now, Nikola _ . Lin caught Magnus’ eye and widened her own in understanding, feeling Magnus’ dread.

“What’s in this drink, Doctor T?” she asked loudly, distracting him for whatever reason Magnus thought. _ Erika can like whoever she bloody well likes so long as it doesn’t affect our work and he knows that. Not her fault she fell out of love. Maddening vampire-- _

He frowned, looking at Magnus, who looked back with a dare in her eyes, before looking at Lin, who was trying to keep her eyes studiously on the road, but they flicked every so often to see his reaction. “A potent mix of various liquids I found in the lab, absinthe, and tequila. A lot of absinthe and tequila.”

“That’s where that went then,” Magnus mused.

“Oh?”

She smiled, and shook her head, leaning over to whisper something no-one else could hear.

Erika just looked out the window.  _ Why is he angry? He’s known about this for months. Stupid-- _

Gently, Lin touched Erika’s sleeved arm. “Have a Malteser… Have two actually. One in each cheek - where the hell did you learn to drive, tosser?! -- so you can be a hamster…” She had been speaking quietly until she yelled at the yellow Fiesta that cut in front of her, then quiet again, so as not to be heard over Biffy Clyro blasting from the radio. “And whatever it is, it’ll work out,” she added, even quieter, acutely aware that Tesla had vampire hearing.

_ But what if it doesn’t and Tesla makes Magnus hate me and won’t let me visit the underground Sanctuary again and Declan doesn’t want me here and Alice grows up to hate me and _

“It will work out,” Lin ground out, eyes wide, smiling over brightly. “And no-one is going to make anyone do or feel anything.”

Erika turned her head to look at Lin, and nodded, smiling a bit, before catching Declan looking at her.

_ What are they-- why is she-- she’s so-- _

Saying nothing, Lin turned the music up, wishing they were listening to the album version, with all it’s swear words intact. Maybe that would chill everyone out. It chilled her out. “Nothing like singing to clear your head,” she muttered, feeling Erika’s laugh.

\--

“After this,” the radio DJ announced, dragging Helen away from a report downloaded onto her tablet. There was something familiar about the song, something…

“Huh, Nirvana that isn’t  _ Teen Spirit _ ?  Gwahanol …” Lin muttered did her usual chair dancing, drumming along on the steering wheel.

_ “Mom, Henry let me borrow his tape!” _ Ashley, seven years of age, trailing after Henry like he’d hung the moon. She’d been so proud that he’d loaned her his battered copied tape.

_ “Mom, this guy was so cool!”  _ Ashley, older, reading the album notes to  _ Nevermind _ .

_ “Hey, mom…”  _ Ashley wanting something, though she couldn’t remember what.

_ “Mom.”  _ Ashley talking, images of Ashley walking, Ashley, Ashley, Ashley, in a round, her voice in her ears even though she’d not heard her since her first run through of 2009.

“Helen?”

Head swiveling slowly, she looked miserably at Nikola. “This was Ashley’s favourite. I’ve not heard it in… in years.”

Nikola nodded. “You were singing,” he whispered, his warm breath moving her hair and sending little thrills down her spine.

Helen nodded, noticing in the corner of her eye Lin wiping away a tear. Smiling at him, she said, “She used to play it in the car when I could drive her to school. Henry usually took her, unless he had a field trip or a free period in the morning. It’s been over a century but I suppose some things just… stick.”

Nikola touched her hand, his cool fingertips welcome on her skin as she flipped her palm up. He drew along the lines before Helen intertwined her fingers with his.

Something else played from the speakers now, and Lin started singing... loudly. “And maybe it’s not my weekend, but it’s gonna be my year!”

“Linnet, I get that you’re the songbird, but we’re getting complaints from Reading!” Declan groused from next to Helen, smiling.

“Yeah yeah, you’re just salty because Declan means ‘Friend of Anthony’, and not something cool, like, Dragon of Moria,” Lin argued from the front, before going back to her singing.

Helen looked questioningly at Declan, quirking an eyebrow as she smiled. “Friend of Anthony?”

Declan bowed his head, hiding behind his borrowed book. “Ant and Dec, off the telly,” he muttered. “Linnet here doesn’t just listen to music, do you Lin?”

“Nope, I can quote all of  _ Red Dwarf _ …  _ Hinterland _ too, at a stretch.”

“Oh, that was the television show you sent down a few months ago,” Erika said, looking over at their driver.

“Yup. What did you think of Mathias?” Lin asked excitedly.

“Did we watch that?” Nikola asked quietly, almost into Helen’s hair.

She narrowed her eyes. “I watched one or two episodes, but I always had other things to do.” She tilted her head. “It was nice to hear a bit of Welsh though.” She smiled sadly, explaining quietly and succinctly, “Mother.”

“Uhm, Doctor Magnus?”

“Yes, Lin?” She pitched her voice a bit louder, to carry over the music, in case Erika or Declan wanted to join in.

She inhaled sharply but exhaled slowly. “No, never mind Doc. Not important. Well, my first question wasn’t important.” She shook her head, as if to get rid of her first, unspoken question, then smiled. “You said before, in the lab, that your mother had family in Wales, and that she spoke Welsh. Did you learn from her?”

Helen paused an infinitesimal moment, before nodding. “I learnt from her but practiced with her family members. It’s not been the most versatile of languages, but the alpaca breeders in Patagonia appreciated my mangling of the language when my Spanish failed.”

“Alpaca breeders?” Nikola asked as Lin echoed, “Spanish failed?”

She nodded. “There’s an abnormal that will only mate in nests lined with alpaca fleece. I was in Patagonia at the time and met with an alpaca breeder.”

Nikola’s eyes went wide with realisation. “That’s why you have two roaming part of the Sanctuary grounds.”

Helen nodded, then whispered so only he could hear her, “And I adore their faces. They’re almost teddy bear like in their expression.”

\--

They had been on the motorway now for an hour, after an hour of stop starting to get out of London. They were still twenty minutes away from Leigh Delamare. The grumbling had started, everyone getting cranky and knotted up from being sat in close quarters and in one position for so long. Declan had read a third of the battered paperback Erika had handed him (a copy of  _ Pride and Prejudice _ , the sellotape peeling back in a few places so yellow lines marred the cover). Nikola had devoured the first half of  _ Le Fantôme de l'Opéra _ (“It’s better than having to listen to the garbage on the radio,” he’d said when Helen silently tilted her head at it, wondering why he chose that). Even she had put down her work and was re-reading  _ Tess of the d’Urbervilles _ . She didn’t really like the story - men really were such hypocrites at times - but she’d had an urge to read it recently.

“I give up!” Lin called from the front. “I’m stopping at Leigh Delamare. I know I said we’d carry on to Magor but my knees hate me and I need the loo. And yes, I am such a brat. Thank you, random person whose name I know but won’t embarrass by calling them out.”

Clara Amfo still rambled on on the radio, but every so often Lin would turn up the music and sing. Helen had decided it was singing (although there were times she sounded like a banshee - “I get it, I’m not a soprano. Stop calling me a banshee!” she’d muttered after one such instance. Helen felt a bit guilty after that, but had Lin’s barriers been up properly, she wouldn’t have heard any of Helen’s criticisms).

She was singing now. Nothing special, but Erika had joined in too. Helen couldn’t quite understand how that friendship had flourished. She could have expected it between Henry and Lin, but neither seemed comfortable talking to the other. Lin and Erika however? “Maybe if they bathed in a glitter bomb first,” Lin said, and Erika burst into laughter. It happened a lot around these two. Erika would be silent and just like that, Lin would say something that was obviously a reply and they’d be laughing.

Erika needed it. Helen was the first to admit she understood that love wasn’t always a permanent feeling. Sometimes it was as fleeting as the wind, and no-one was at fault for the break up between the two HAPs. Helen had tried to stay impartial, but Nikola had been much harder on Erika. Helen couldn’t understand it, neither could Erika. It had been the reason why the younger woman had sat in the front seat; they played it as the older three being responsible and doing work whilst they travelled, but it was to keep Erika and Nikola away from each other.

He really did have a soft spot for Henry, and for Alice.

Helen chewed her lip as she read. Erika wasn’t the only one who needed support. She was still feeling the effects of being a time traveller, and some of the consequences hadn’t made themselves known to her yet. She knew she shouldn’t worry - how was she to know if something, if anything at all, had changed? But a niggling feeling still hounded her.

And apart from that, she needed to talk to Nikola about it, about the things she had to do, but the longer she put it off, the harder it became to find the words. How could she tell him after all this time? She’d been here since 2011, had known all she’d known from her second time around, all the different people she’d met, and she couldn’t tell him.

Thinking about his interactions with Henry and Alice made her ache. What if she hadn’t fallen for John all those years ago? What if she hadn’t been able to freeze the embryo that would become Ashley? Helen hated what if, it only wasted energy, but what if she told Nikola every adventure she’d had in her loop? Would he forgive her choices? Would he understand why she did what she did when she did?

In the time it took her to think herself in circles, they had arrived at Leigh Delamare. Engine off, Lin all but jumped out of the driver’s seat, grabbing her phone and rubbish as Erika slid out her side. Helen would have had to wait for either man next to her to move, but from the way Nikola’s arm was creeping around her waist, she wasn’t too worried. 

\--

“Oh god, that feels so much better!” Lin cried into the open air. She stretched next to her door, feeling everything pop gladly. “My Plus is comfier than that!” she muttered.

“I could always drive the next leg,” Declan told her, closing his door.

“Nah, I’d have to swap places with you, and I don’t do well in the back,” she explained.

_ And you have a crush on Magnus. _

Lin flushed as she heard Erika’s mental comment, declining to comment in front of her boss, but a roll of her eyes confirmed her mental inquiry.

Erika nodded. “And that isn’t a bad thing. Tea?”

“Thought you’d never ask! Gagging for a cuppa!”

They dug out the large thermos flask from the bed of the pickup, three battered cups (Tesla and Magnus still weren’t out of the pick-up and no-one wanted to disturb them), some tea bags and a box of sandwiches. It was too cold to be sitting out on the benches, but the car provided enough of a windbreak, especially when Lin clambered up to sit on the tailgate. “And don’t look back in anger,” she crooned, keeping her gaze away from Magnus and Tesla’s shadowy forms in the passenger part of the truck. “Just don’t look at all,” she added, not singing, taking her cup from Declan. “Thanks, Boss.”

Erika hopped up next to Lin, both now sitting cross-legged in the bed of the pickup. Smiling, she gracefully accepted her cup from Declan.

“So I’m thinking, once we get over the bridge, go cross country through Abergavenny and Llandovery, unless you really wanna stick to the motorway all the way to Carmarthen,” Lin told them, fiddling with her phone.

“Doesn’t the motorway carry on past Carmarthen?” Declan asked, leaning against the car, close to Erika.

Lin made a face. “The London road does.” She looked at her two companions, who both looked back at her in confusion. “Oh, the A40. That’s the road we’d take if we went through Y Fenni and that lot. It goes all the way to Fishguard… Hey, could we go on a day trip to Dublin instead?”

“What happened to, ‘Please please please Declan? I haven’t been in ages!’ It’s all I had from you yesterday morning,” he grumbled, flapping his hands like a penguin, but smiling all the while. To be fair, he had done a passable impression of Lin, although she wouldn’t tell him that.

“Right, first off, I am not that high. How the hell did you do that? Secondly, there are sirens there. They’re big and eat brains. I like my brain in my head! Thirdly…” She paused, before waving her hands around as if chasing the third point away. “Ok, so there is no thirdly, but I feel firstly and secondly covered my points well.” She pouted dramatically, “And stop laughing, I’m being super serious right now!” She narrowed her eyes at Erika, to dissolve into fits of giggles with her. Declan’s deep chuckle rounded out the sound, almost like music itself.

“Who made the sarnies?” Declan asked after finishing his tea, nodding at the box.

Lin and Erika both looked at the box, before shrugging. Erika reached out and grabbed it, feeling the weight of it.  _ Oh goodness there’s going to be a brain in here or a head or a _

“Just open the box!” Lin told her sharply, before grimacing. “Sorry.”

They were perfectly ordinary sandwiches - cheese and pickle, ham and mustard, a somehow not soggy tuna mayonnaise - cut into perfect squares.

“Oh good, you found the sandwiches,” Magnus said brightly, her head poking around between Declan and the truck. Her face fell. “There should be another lunchbox, I couldn’t fit them all in that one.”

Erika’s eyes lit up, looking over at Magnus. “Did you make…?”

Magnus nodded, still smiling.

Erika looked at Lin. “We need the other box.”

“Why?” she asked, moving things out of the way.

Erika’s eyes lit up. “Marmite.”

Instantly Lin was battered by sensation from all three. “Ok ok, I get it! Marmite is both mana from heaven and the work of the devil. Back off, all of you! Not physically!” she added. “Just… less everything, ok?” Turning back to the packed belongings, Lin finally found the second lunchbox. “Did anyone pack any biscuits?” she asked morosely, opening the box, stomach turning slightly at the smell.

“Sorry  _ Linaria Cannabina _ , no biscuits,” Tesla answered, leaning against the truck on her side, looking at Magnus, holding a takeaway cup. “They’ve got some inside though.”

Hand on her heart, Lin calmed her breathing. “How long have you been there? Never mind. Anyone else want anything from the shop?” Headphones in, she shimmied out of the truck. “I’ll be right back.”

\--

Helen squeezed past Declan and the car, smiling at Erika, to gladly take the cardboard cup from Nikola. “Thank you,” she whispered gratefully.

“My pleasure,” he replied, touching her arm.

“Lin’s thinking of taking the A40 rather than staying on the M4,” Declan told them as Helen sipped her tea. “Think it might be a good idea.”

She nodded. “Less traffic maybe. We’ll see how things are once we cross the bridge.” She sipped some more tea, ignoring Nikola’s groan. “As for the sirens themselves, we--” Helen’s Farnsworth rang. Looking at the others, who all shrugged, she opened it. “Lin? How…?”

“Borrowed Erika’s. Bigger problem… I think someone’s clocked us.”

Helen’s face fell. “What?”

Lin shook her head. “Oh, sorry, I meant us as in the Sanctuary group, rather than us - you, me, Dec et cetera. I just saw some of the Queen’s Horses.”

“Shit,” Declan muttered, running his hand through his hair.

“They didn’t see me,” she continued, “but I did hear them mention Declan. They think he’s old. Which is stupid because how else is someone going to become a leader if they don’t have experience? Weirdos.”

Helen sighed impatiently. “Are you on your way back?”

Lin nodded. “Half a minute tops. Keeping my head down, like.”

“Alright, we’ll be here waiting.” Closing the phone, Helen watched as everyone jumped into action. Things were put back in the truck, bodies jumped into the truck and Lin came meandering around the corner.  _ What is she doing start running get in the car run run run _

Lin looked up and shook her head minutely. Keeping at her own sedate pace, she made it to the car and into it before Helen had belted up. “Ok campers, off we go.”

“How are you so calm?” Helen asked, mind whirring a mile a minute, glad for the music dampening Lin’s ability.

“They’re like wasps - don’t panic and they won’t sting,” Lin explained. “And they’re going to Bath. Something about literal lightning bugs. One guy was worried about getting his hair frizzy.”

“ _ Rinascorpa Reticuli _ ? With the stingers?” Nikola asked, impressed.

Helen nodded. “Rina scorpions, known to converge in areas with high electromagnetic fields. Did you happen to glean where in Bath they were going?”

Shaking her head, Lin said, “Only that the guy hated lightning and wanted cake. That being said, I think we should detour up to the A40 sooner rather than later. Sound like a good idea?”

Helen nodded, grabbing her Farnsworth. She’d message Henry and Will an update, and try to find out more about the scorpions in Bath.

\--

Lin gave a little cheer as they crossed the border into Wales. “Diolch am y croeso!” she said to the sign as they sailed by. “Ah, so much better!” she decreed. “Three hours and we’ll be by the beach! Ok, so it isn’t the Bahamas or whatever, but beach! Sand! Sea!”

Erika smiled, turning slightly to face Lin. “I’ve only ever been to Wales once, when I was younger. And not to the coast.”

“Tresaith is amazing. It even has a waterfall!” Lin burbled, bouncing up and down slightly in her chair. “And Aberporth has this cute cafe come chippy that does amazing fish and chips. And an awesome Chinese takeaway. And the views during the day!” She grinned. “There’s the coastal path too. Walk from Cardigan up to Aberystwyth. It's brill. Mam would bring Ellie and me here every year and we’d go walking…”

“Would your dad go along?” Erika asked.

Lin nodded. “Uhm, kinda. He’d sit in the pub drinking diet Cola, eating prawn cocktail crisps.”

“Man of taste,” Declan murmured from behind Lin, making all three women smile.

“But actual walking? That was me, mam and Ellie. Sometimes my aunt and cousin would come with us, or a friend of mine, or a friend of Ellie’s. When we got older, mam would let us roam free. And we’d take cameras… We spent ages taking photos of the sunset. It was the perfect way to spend the day.” 

“So we’ll expect you to play tour guide then,” Tesla commented, smiling from behind his book.

“Puh-lease, I’ll have you know I’m amazing, but I’m a shoddy tour guide,” Lin admitted. “I just want to go running into the sea. The Christmas day dip is stupid cold!”

“Probably colder in Blackpool,” Declan told her.

“Doubt it, blokes just feel it worse,” Lin shot back, smiling. “And Northern ones? Pah!”

“Yeah, because the Welsh are  _ so _ hard,” he replied, wryly.

“We totally are, we have to be,” she answered, dancing along to Imagine Dragons.

“Why?” Magnus asked.

Erika and Declan groaned. Both, at different times, had heard the 'Wales for the Welsh' rant. Lin grinned evilly. “I don’t know why you two are groaning. Neither of you has lost your homeland to English interlopers, decimating the land and destroying communities, killing the language--”

“I thought your father was English?” Magnus pointed out.

Lin shrugged, grinning. “Yup. Just wanted to see how long these two would let me carry on. Surprised they let me get that far to be honest. I usually get, ‘Oh my god I’m sorry I said anything!’ before having something cushion like thrown at me after the word ‘lost’.”

“Shame we didn’t bring Nate,” Declan said.

“And miss out on my wonderful company? You’d be bored, Boss Man.”

_ ‘And much more stressed,’ _ he thought clearly.

“Anyways, maybe you could read your book,” she carried on, “that way I won’t start off on how Wales is being strangled by the English chokehold.”

With a quick glance at the rear view mirror, Lin watched as Magnus looked at her shrewdly, trying to figure her out.

\--

The further into Wales they drove, the less suspicious the Mitsubishi looked. The wheels were too clean, but it no longer screamed Chelsea tractor (a vehicle incongruous to the area - Lin still loved her dad for that one). Inside, everyone was starting to get antsy again, even though Scott Mills was on and totally on form. Lin had had enough. Knowing that the town they were driving into had shops, cafes and decent 4G, she pulled off the main road down a side street, then another. “No parking meters here, though the prat across the road might have an apoplectic fit. He won’t touch it though.”

All four passengers blinked in confusion, looking at her as if she’d grown another head.

“I used to live here,” Lin explained, “and you’re all starting to get all complainy about elbows in ribs and a knee in need of popping… Come on, chippy’s open.”

Jumping out, Lin stretched again, feeling everything pop. Leaning in through her open door, she said, “Or there’s the pub if a certain vampire needs a glass of wine. No idea if the stuff’s drinkable but it’s there. Either way, get out of the car so I can lock it.”

They took their time, but finally, everyone was out of the car. Pressing the fob, Mitsi’s lights flashed as Lin turned her back to it. “If you want to follow me, cool. If not, meet back here in like an hour? Should give you enough time to find some food and eat it…”

\--

Watching Lin stalk off, Nikola and Helen linked arms and vaguely followed, glad Lin had thrown some woolly hats at them (although Nikola had baulked at it to begin with). Nikola thoroughly appreciated his view; Helen was a vision in winter woolies - a hat with a massive pompom sitting primly on her head, her long hair flowing out from underneath, a knitted scarf wrapped around her neck, her woollen coat buttoned up against the cold. It wasn't particularly windy, but the drizzle soaked down to the bone.

“Well, its left, right or straight ahead. Ladies choice,” said Nikola when they came to the next junction. She looked right - that looked like a cafe down the one-way street? To the left was a fire station and a… A school? Ahead seemed to be more shops… “Let’s go forward,” she suggested, smiling. “You know, you look quite dashing in your hat. Just a shame you're not windswept and rosy-cheeked.” She tugged the brim over his ear, making him grin back at her.

“I’m sure I heard dashing in there,” he replied, touching her jaw with his fingertips, her eyebrow rising as she nodded slightly, smiling wryly. With a roll of her eyes, she kissed him quickly then tugged him forward, crossing the road.

“I’m not really hungry,” she told him, “but we can always go explore. There was something on the town sign about rugby and maybe we can find something to do for the next hour.”

Nikola sneered. “Rugby?” he asked as they walked.

“Better than the footy,” she replied, smirking.

Nikola groaned. “Helen, even cricket is better than football, and cricket--”

“Isn’t a real sport,” she joined in. “I knew I should’ve worked harder on keeping Nigel around.”

“He hated cricket too,” Nikola told her as they turned right, walking along the high street. “He only watched with you because it was time with you. Without any of us.” He shrugged, looking both ways before crossing the road.

“That doesn’t… Isn’t…” Helen shook her head. “He was my friend. Why did he feel he had to resort to subterfuge?”

“Why would James sit and discuss the Ripper case with John on an evening? Why did I arc electricity from my fingertips to make…” He flushed, before carrying on in a whisper, “To make you smile?” She smiled, bolstering his resolve. “Why did we all inject the Source Blood?” He stopped on a corner where an old, disused shop stood - the massive signs in the windows thanking the public for their custom over the years - turned fully to face her, her hand in his, and said, “That pesky emotion the children call love. He loved you, just as much as James loved John, you love me, although,” he murmured in her ear, “I do hope you love me more now.”

Helen rolled her eyes indulgently, “Cheeky,” then smiled sadly. “I miss them,” she told him simply, linking arms with him again.

Nikola sighed and nodded. “Especially Nigel.”

“You’re only saying that because he’d go along with your pranks.”

“Go along with?” he asked mock aghast. “Half of them were his idea.”

“The Dean?” she asked, noticing an old stone building behind some open gates.

Nikola laughed darkly. “No, that was one we all concocted,” he explained as they crossed the road, Helen seemingly adamant about exploring the grounds of what the signs called the town’s university. “Nigel and James were late leaving our lab one evening and saw the Dean entertaining in his office. They would’ve carried on if they hadn’t heard your name.”

“What?” she asked, the faint echo of a laugh still tingeing her voice as she dragged him onwards. The fallen leaves of October had all but turned to mulch at the sides of the pavements, but the grass was green, and not terribly muddy. Nikola was suddenly transported to their day in autumn, all those years ago, although the colours seemed paler now, older.

“Nigel listened - invisible, naturally - in the open doorway.”

“Naturally…”

Nikola sighed, stopping opposite the old building that had caught her eye. “You were our friend Helen, my _only_ friend before the Source Blood, but more than that you… You were our leader. Our bond.” He grimaced, remembering the distaste Nigel’s parroted words elicited on his tongue, the crowding fangs and stretching talons as his newfound vampire traits battled past his few manners, screaming for revenge. “We used our gifts from you to protect your honour from idiots like him.”

Shaking her head, Helen’s face darkened slightly, and Nikola knew this wouldn’t be fun. “Is that why I was suddenly allowed to take my exams, actually participate in lectures, not just audit?”

His face contorted, grimacing a touch. “Eh…”

“Nikola!” His name was an explosion of frustration and hurt, hurtling from her mouth to his ears.

“It was the four of us!” he explained as she took a few steps forward, turning back as his sentence lingered.

“I never asked you--”

“You never would have--”

“You could’ve been caught, Nikola, the four of you,” she finished, interrupting him as brazenly as he had interrupted her. “The four of you defending my honour? That would have been worse than any of the slurs he could have said over brandy and cigars.” She took his hand again, her palm warm against his, and smiled her sweet, soft smile that Nikola recognised as his alone. “If there ever comes a time I need to defend myself, let me do it?” Her hand felt like a little heat pad against his cheek. “Come on, let’s find you something vaguely palatable to drink.”

\--

Declan and Erika decided on going right when they got to the same juncture that Helen and Nikola had crossed. They walked close together until Declan caught her hand. Without missing a step they carried on, hands firmly held together, until they reached the main road.

Erika’s shoulders straightened as she caught a whiff of chips on the breeze. Her stomach growled. “Left,” she said simply, walking half a dozen steps and entering the chip shop.

Inside, they had the choice of sitting down for a meal or grabbing a takeaway. Erika didn’t fancy sitting inside (they still had just under an hour left of their journey), so they both had takeout. Neither was too impressed by the portion size, but it filled a hole, and really, who didn’t like fish and chips in the drizzle?

“I used to do this with my mum,” Declan remarked as the wandered the streets. “Saturday afternoon, after she cleaned the house and I’d done my room, we’d catch the bus, sit on the pier, eat chips.” He speared a chip. “It was only us two, for a long time.” They’d reached what they assumed was the town square, and sat on the benches facing the stone water feature, close enough to feel the warmth of the other. In silence they ate some more, watching the cars drive by.

“Do you miss it?” Erika asked, flaking her battered cod.

Declan’s face scrunched up in thought and nostalgia. “I suppose I do.” He sighed. “She didn’t want me joining the army, but she was always proud of me.”

“Picture on the mantelpiece?” she asked softly.

He nodded, turning to face her and smile, “And in her purse, and her work diary. Mr. Archer, her boss, knew more about my training and achievements than I did.” He pushed around the remnants of his cod, the chips cooling quicker than he would’ve liked.

Erika echoed his movements, smiling. “When I went to live with aunt Lillian, she had a picture of me on my first day of school on her desk.”

“Not the mantelpiece?”

Erika laughed gently, “No fireplace.” Sobering, she added, “She lived in her office when she wasn’t… I know she wasn’t really helping us, but she tried.” Silently, they both poked at their meal.

“How did Henry take the news?” Declan asked quietly, not wanting to ruin the mood.

“About my moving up?” she asked. He nodded, and she shrugged. “He said he understood, but he doesn’t like it. He hates the idea of missing so much of Alice. Thought he had more time before she started nursery.” She looked at Declan, before looking back at the road. “I think Tesla’s going to miss her more.”

“Tesla?” Declan asked, incredulous, taking both his and Erika’s empty boxes to the bin. “Nikola Tesla?”

“Yes,” she replied, smiling. “Somehow he’s become her favourite uncle. Alice follows him everywhere, and he talks to her as if she’s an adult he actually likes.”

“How did that come about?” he asked, helping her to her feet so they could walk again. They didn’t let go of the other’s hand.

“He’s interesting. He must be if Doctor Magnus…” She smiled at him. “Alice calls him Uncle Nik’la.” She shrugged. “We needed someone to keep an eye on her one day, and everyone else was off on different parts of the grounds. He just plucked her out of Henry’s arms, said something like, ‘she’s a captive audience and someone needs to educate her,’ and after that no-one else but him or Magnus would do.” Looking both ways, they crossed the road, and she carried on her story. “He’d look after her when Henry and I had to go work off the Sanctuary’s grounds. He even made her her own Farnsworth, ‘To keep her out of trouble,’ he said... ”

“Sounds like you’re going to miss him,” Declan pointed out.

Erika nodded, her face crumpling. “It’s why I think he’s still angry. He’s known for months that this is happening.” She sighed. “Am I doing the right thing for Alice?”

Declan squeezed her hand. She squeezed back.

\--

“You don’t want to know,” Lin growled, sitting across a table from Helen and Nikola. They were in a pub, ten minutes before they were to get back in the car and drive to Tresaith.

Nikola raised an eyebrow at Helen, who shrugged. “Or, maybe you should tell us so we don’t constantly badger you on the car ride down to the beach with, Tell me tell me tell me,” Helen suggested, smiling.

Lin huffed, and Helen was suddenly struck with a wave of nostalgia, of another young woman struggling with her anger and her words, manners vaguely there but not quite. “I had to drop in on a couple of people because if I didn’t I’d’ve had calls from mam then calls from dad and, ugh anyway... I didn’t even want to go to the shop but whatever. Someone I used to go out with was there and she was in a foul mood and it got worse and now I just want to eat chocolate and watch schlock television but I can’t because I have to have my brain eaten by a massive half bird half human cryptid thing.”

Helen shook her head, trying to make heads or tails of the words that had flowed from Lin’s lips. Nikola just grinned as he sipped his wine. Rolling her eyes at him, Helen asked, “So you’re frustrated because you saw an ex-girlfriend or because you had to visit people?”

Lin groaned. “Both, neither? I broke up with her because she went all Edward Cullen, ‘do as I say or pay the price,’ so she did this whole smear campaign with everyone who knew me and now I can barely walk around the town I grew up in without someone asking me some sly question.”

“But if they knew you why would they believe her?”

Lin shrugged, her face reflecting how she felt. “Buggered if I know. Ugh, she’s a cow anyways.” Sitting back, she rubbed her face. “And the shop I used to buy music from? Closed last year. Forgot, so couldn’t get my dose of abuse from the guy there.”

“I can see why you moved,” Nikola muttered, grimacing at the wine.

“What?” Lin shook her head. “Nah, Fred was cool. It was the sort of abuse Declan and I sorta throw at each other. Not that I throw abuse at the boss, boss lady,” she added, remembering who she was sat with.

“Boss lady?” she asked, a shade of incredulity colouring her question. She’d been called a host of names in her time, but that was very definitely a new one on her.

Lin open and closed her mouth, trying to find a decent explanation. Giving up, she shrugged. “I’ve always done it. Don’t know why. Maybe a distancing thing? Cause, you know, the whole mind reading thing.”

“Far be it for me to be the responsible one, but shouldn’t we be meeting MacRae and Wolfette now?” Nikola asked, interrupting the scintillating conversation.

Helen checked her watch as Lin pressed a button on her phone. “Bloody hell,” they chorused before looking at each other. “Jinx!” Lin yelled, hitting the table.

“Wha--”

“Nope, you don’t get to say anything until we say your full name three times!” Lin’s eyes were wide and bright, and Helen knew she should’ve been feeling annoyed at her voice being taken by such a childish game, but she couldn’t muster up the ire - there were much more important things to worry about when they got to the beach. Holding up her hands in defeat, she nodded, and stood, grabbing her hat from the table and stuffing it on over her head.

“A car trip without Helen talking to me?” Nikola was pouting now, putting his wool coat back on. Helen smiled, and kissed his cheek, tapping his heart.

“Never mind Nikola, you can still talk at me,” Lin told him, affecting an English accent that sounded more cockney than educated. “Why are you comparing me to Will?” she asked Helen.

_ No reason, _ Helen thought at her,  _ but best leave the accents to other people. _

“You saying my English ain’t good enough?” she asked, the same vaguely cockney accent sounding mock affronted, before waving at the barmaid and walking out the side door of the pub.

_ No. I’m thinking it. Also,  _ ain’t _ is a horrific word and I would ask you never to use it in my presence again. _

“Whatever she’s saying can’t be good, if that’s the face you’re making,” Nikola told Lin, as he touched Helen’s hand.

Lin’s eyebrows shot up - Helen could tell her own heart rate had elevated. A small touch to her hand and she had a hummingbird in her chest where her heart should be. Hopefully, Lin would have the sense not to mention it,  _ his ego’s large enough as it is _ .

“No, only good things,” Lin managed weakly.

“Damn, I’m slipping,” he muttered, linking arms with Helen. A smile dragged itself across her lips, although she couldn’t help but think back to the last time she was here. She looked at Lin, who, being level with them, looked at Helen oddly. She shook her head at the younger woman.  _ Not now. _

“Full name?” Nikola asked.

“Three times,” Lin confirmed. “Uninterrupted,” she added.

Helen didn’t like the look in Nikola’s eye.

_ Llinos, please, stop this. _

“I don’t know your full name,” Lin replied to Helen’s mental plea.

“I do,” Nikola reminded them as they crossed the junction that had been their group splitter an hour earlier.

“But you’re also Doctor Secret Agenda,  _ what _ ?” Lin recited, the ‘what’ her own confusion at the sentence. Helen grinned.  _ This is almost as good as speaking for myself. _

“You would say that,” Lin groused, digging into her jeans pocket for her keys. “Bloody Haf,” she muttered. “Ruined a perfectly good day. Remind me if I ever road trip from London to Wales again, not to stop here.” She wrenched the door open. “Never trust anyone named after a season,” she groused as Helen slid into the front seat. Lin boggled at her. “Aren’t you letting Erika sit there?” she asked, incredulously.

Helen shook her head, smiling as she reached behind her and grabbed her backpack.

“Was it something I said?” Nikola asked, digging out his copy of  _ Fantome _ .

“Nah, she just wanted to sit with the resident Welsh geek,” Lin told him, smiling at Helen.

_ Thank you _ , she thought to the telepath.  _ And it’s Patricia. I used to hate Ashley and Henry playing this game. _

“My mam used to hate me and Ellie playing it,” Lin admitted, tapping the steering wheel. “Wonder where the hell Declan and Erika are?”

_ This isn’t like Declan _ , Helen thought.

“Doesn’t Wolfette have a watch?” Nikola groused from behind his paperback.

“Can I borrow your Farnsworth?” Lin asked Helen, pointing to the dashboard where the new-fangled phone lay.

Helen nodded and watched as Lin contacted Erika. “Where are you?”

Erika and Declan looked at each other, looked off screen then back at Lin. “We’re not sure…”

“Show me,” Lin told them, leaning toward Helen so she could see they were both fine. “Ah! I know where you are, just stay there, we’ll pick you up. It’ll be quicker.” Closing the Farnsworth, she handed it back to Helen before turning the key. “Everyone belted up? Cool! Off we pop.”


	4. Chapter 3: Finally At The Beach

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> They finally get to Tresaith, but before they could really work sunset happens. Bad things happen at night.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ok, so we're kinda getting to the case fic part of this fic, but Rachel of the Melodrama came out in full force here, so enjoy. Any questions, any confusion/mistakes, ~~any compliments~~ , let me know in the comments below. :)

The journey to Tresaith was quieter than they expected. Lin had freed Helen of her jinx by the time they reached Declan and Erika (they had been on the university grounds, kicking a tiny pile of fallen, orange leaves that had somehow missed the mulching), but because Helen sat in the passenger seat, Declan and Erika were sat next to each other. They talked quietly and every now and then one would squeeze the other's hand. There were no random outbursts of laughter from Erika, and Lin was quieter, stewing.

“Shall we go back and straighten everything out between you and your ex girlfriend?” Helen asked quietly as Lin gunned the truck down a back road.

“Nope,” Lin ground out. “She’s controlling, and that isn’t healthy.” She shook her head. “She hid so much from me. I couldn’t trust her after that.”

Helen nodded, and looked out the window.

“Tell me, Songbird, can your telepathy go both ways?”

Lin shrugged, glancing up at the rear view mirror to look at Nikola. “Not tried with anyone outside my family, to be honest.”

Helen tilted her head. “Why do you ask, Nikola?”

He smirked, though Helen couldn’t see it. “Curiosity.”

_Curiosity my arse, he’s bored!_

Lin snorted a laugh. “Well, if no-one minds me trying to talk at them whilst I drive.” There were murmurs of assent and for the next five minutes, Lin sat quietly.

_Why can’t anyone--_

“Oh!” Helen gasped quietly, looking at Lin.

“Luck of the script?” she asked. “You’re the last person I heard mentally.”

A hush descended, until Lin exploded. “Why can’t I talk to Erika?”

“Maybe we need to have our frequencies matched?” Erika suggested. 

“Are there any songs that don’t work as a breaker between you two?” Helen asked.

Lin shrugged, then said, “Oh. Eri, grab my phone... Pop on _Give Me Love_ but fast forward it like four, five minutes.”

Erika nodded, then started fiddling with Lin’s smart phone.

Helen turned slightly in her seat, watching the two youngest work together, glad Erika would definitely have at least one other supporter above ground. As Erika handed the phone to Helen, the voice from it (the radio muted for a moment) calmed her. She recognised the song too, but she couldn’t place it. “Why this song?”

_She and Henry would sing it. It makes her sad._

_You sent that to me, Lin._

_I know._ Lin shook her head. _Even with the song she can’t hear me._

_Maybe something to work on now that she’ll be up here?_ Helen thought back.

_If I can drag her away from Decky Duck Face._ Lin’s eyes went wide and Helen could see the panic trying to work its way out of her body, as she tried to keep her laughter down. “Oh my god, I’m never living that down.” _Like everything else in my life I am so fucked, shit, fuck, shit, stop swearing Lli your boss can hear you and fuck fuck fuck._

Helen felt Nikola tap her shoulder. “What did she say?”

“Never you mind, nosy.”

_Why can you hear me?_

Helen shrugged. _Why can you hear anyone?_

Lin laughed, _Maybe we_ are _related. You did say your mother had family round here, and my mam is very definitely from the area._

_Maybe,_ Helen replied, smiling. _But for now can you leave it alone?_

_Why?_

_The sirens are more important. Drop it._ Helen looked at Lin, who glanced back at her (as they were at a junction and Lin could actually look at her) and nodded at her boss.

[You know Helen, this is a boring car ride.]

She looked down at her Farnsworth, before turning in her seat and looking at Nikola, who did a passable impression of someone reading a book. Shaking her head, she faced forwards again, jabbing at the screen.

[Because you were finding it interesting before this last bit?]

[I could feel your heartbeat. It was making this delightful pitter patter rhythm.]

[Pitter patter?]

[Ok, the usual normal thudding.]  
[But it was comforting.]

[Are you alright?]

[I will never admit to this to anyone but you.]  
[I’m really going to miss Alice.]  
[And her mother, I suppose.]

[I know.]  
[I will too.]  
[But Alice will be visiting soon enough.]  
[And then you’ll be able to spoil her rotten again.]

[I don’t spoil her.]  
[I just pander to her wishes and desires.]  
[And give her chocolate when Henry isn’t watching.]

Helen grinned. “That’s why she’s hyper when she’s visited you.” She turned and looked at Erika, who had tilted her head in confusion. “Alice,” she explained. “I’ve discovered the reason why she runs around like a headless chicken for hours… Apart from being a four year old.”

“Oh, we’ve finally admitted our guilt in feeding my child sugar before bed?” Erika asked Nikola, smiling at him.

He barely looked up from his book. “I admit nothing.” He turned the page. “I’m not the only one though, before anyone points fingers.”

Helen laughed, drawing Nikola out of his book to smirk at her. “Are you spilling secrets now, Nikola?”

“Nothing that your delightful protégé wouldn’t try to cover up in the face of an angry mother. Thankfully, I’m a bit harder to rip to shreds.”

“Doesn’t mean I wouldn’t try,” Erika muttered, smiling.

“You, Wolfette, would not have a hope,” he taunted, smiling back.

Lin giggled quietly next to Helen, the truck speeding up as they turned off the main road. “Short cut!” she explained happily. “Shame it isn’t sunny. You can usually see the sea here.”

“Much further?” Declan asked, handing Erika back her book.

“Uhm, ‘bout twenty minutes?” she answered, shrugging one shoulder. She fiddled with the radio. “Bit bored of this now. Eri, pop something on my phone.”

“Magnus has your phone, Lin,” Erika reminded her gently.

“Password?”

“Hang on,” Lin said. Without warning, Helen had an image of a lock screen, its pass image on show.

“Any song in particular?” Helen asked softly.

“Something Welsh…” _Not Mega though. I love their brand of cheesy pop, but don’t wanna inflict them on Tesla._

“Tebot Piws?” she asked, sounding out the letters like a child pretending to sleepwalk.

“Yeah, that’ll do.” Helen pressed the file and soon enough the music played through the car’s speakers. 

Lin started jigging and singing along. “ _Dau gi bach yn mynd i’r coed!_ ”

“What is this?” Erika asked, very confused.

“A song about milking a cow,” Lin explained, drumming on the car wheel. “Well, it starts with a Welsh nursery rhyme but devolves into milking a cow.”

“And people bought this?” Nikola asked, unable to believe it.

Lin shrugged, “I dunno, people bought Lily the Pink.”

\--

“And here we finally are,” Lin announced as she parked the car.

“Alright, everyone knows what they’re doing. We have,” Magnus checked her watch, “an hour before sunset. Grab whatever you need; we’re going for a walk.”

Falling out of the car, groaning and stretching, everyone threw on their hats and coats (except Tesla, because vampire, and Declan, because Northern - both only put on a jacket each), then trooped towards the beach. Tresaith’s part of the coast was long and wide, with darker sand for two thirds of the beach where the sea would come to at high tide. The lighter sand was fine and powdery, perfect for sitting on on a summer’s day. Beyond the beach, back inland, lay the road, and beyond that again, the village itself.

The Ship, a pub/hotel where they were staying, sat nestled in the houses like the crown jewel, a busy and bustling place even in the off season. The tables outside were bolted down, as were the benches that surrounded them; all were painted white. The windows of the building were modern and large, to capitalise on the view, whilst the rest of the pub loomed around the feature, dark and hulking. Lin parked the car in their car park and left it, knowing Dewi, the owner, wasn’t going to kick up a fuss - “Better a car to make the place look busy than no car and no customers.”

“ _Bach yn hwyr i wilio am drysor_?” Dewi asked Lin by the wall of the pub, the others clustered between the car and the publican.

“ _Helfa drysor ecstrîm_?” Lin answered back hopefully, shrugging her shoulders. “ _Na, ma_ \--”

“What are they saying?” Tesla whispered to Magnus.

“He thinks we’re treasure hunters,” she whispered back, trying to listen. “She’s saying we’re trying to find out what happened to Sion Cwilt.”

“What happened to Sion Cwilt?” Erika asked.

Magnus shrugged.

“-- _Mynd mlaen am Aberteifi_ ,” Lin explained to a nodding Dewi.

“ _Wel, pob lwc iddynt_.” He looked over the sea. “ _Noson arw heno_.” He looked them over. “You come over for a pint later, and I’ll tell you stories about the place that will make your hair curl.” He tapped his nose, then smiled at Lin.

“Do we want to know what he said before mentioning beer?” Erika asked quietly.

“Aaah, all good luck stuff, and that it’s going to be rough,” Lin explained, pushing her fringe out of her face.

“Reading the reports, nothing happened on rougher nights,” Declan mentioned. “We should scout out the two sides of the beach, decide tonight which way we go tomorrow.”

Magnus nodded, “Agreed.”

“Cool, who am I third wheeling?”

Declan and Erika were planning on going south, toward Aberporth, with a few bits of electronics, whilst Magnus and Tesla would be headed North, toward Penbryn, with their own bits of tech. In the end, Erika dragged Lin with her and Declan, leaving Magnus and Tesla to their own devices.

\--

“We’ve not had a moonlit stroll on a beach in years,” Nikola said, walking sedately next to Helen.

Helen stopped, looked at him, up at the sky (cloudy, extremely cloudy), over to the horizon then back at him, quirking an eyebrow and smiling sardonically.

“Ok,” he conceded, “sunset stroll. Either way, we’re finally alone.”

“And busy, Nikola,” she reminded, tromping along the sand. “I want to get up to the top of that ridge before we lose all the light.”

“Vampire?” he reminded her, turning to walk backwards and pointing at his chest. “We are known for our ability to see in the dark.”

Helen smirked. “And for missing the point too. These sirens, if they are indeed sirens, are dangerous. We need to get them to a Sanctuary facility before anyone else loses their life.”

Nikola tilted his head. “You don’t think they’re sirens?”

Helen shrugged, eyes wide, lips pursed, “I don’t know what they are until I see them. I’ve been thinking and there’s something that doesn’t quite make sense.” They’d reached the path that would take them up the cliff. “Sirens normally prefer warmer climes.”

“Greece,” Nikola sighed in nostalgia, turning again. “There was this lovely little place…” He grinned at Helen, although the darkness was slowly encroaching. “That’s our next destination,” he decided.

She huffed a laugh, “And if I said no?”

Nikola stopped in his tracks, held her hand and paused her own movements. “I’d pout and be sad?” he offered, looking the complete opposite of pouty.

She rolled her eyes, before carrying on. “And another thing that doesn’t add up. Why are so many people hearing bells? Sirens, even in a large group, haven’t the ability to change a person’s perception over a great distance.”

“Could there be another abnormal accentuating the sirens psychic abilities?” he asked, stopping to look at the storm clouds on the horizon.

Helen had carried on walking, but turned when she realised he’d fallen behind. Smiling, she said, “I don’t know… Come on Nikola, not much further now. Then,” she added, when he stood next to her again, “we can find somewhere quiet to sit and drink that bottle of wine I know you have stashed away.”

\--

If the outside of the pub looked a strange mix of incongruous windows and dark walls, inside was the opposite. A roaring fire in the hearth opposite the entrance kept the place warm, a well stocked bar to the right of it kept everyone watered whilst Dewi stood drying a glass like a quintessential barman. Music played softly in the background whilst Lin, Declan and Erika clustered around a table. They watched the sea from their seats, glad they were inside as the wind picked up.

“Mam would bring us here for lunch on our days out,” Lin mentioned. “I used to love looking at the pictures - smiling people, and I didn’t know why.”

“Does it get lonely?” Erika asked, resting against Declan’s shoulder.

Lin sipped her drink, nodding. “I can’t do a lot of things people consider ‘normal’ - shaking hands, hugging people, go on a proper night out.” She laughed darkly. “That’s more the not getting drunk thing though.”

“Yes, how did that delightful skill come to light?” Tesla asked, as he and Magnus joined them.

“When a mummy and a daddy love each other very much…” Lin began sardonically, before rolling her eyes. “Na, it's something odd in my family. Mam can’t get drunk, mamgu couldn’t either.” Lin pursed her lips and looked off to the middle distance. “Thinking about it, I don’t think any of my blood relliers can get drunk.”

“Are all your family telepaths?” Magnus asked, intrigued.

Someone’s stomach growled. Lin tilted her head to Dewi. “He might have someone working the kitchen tonight. Or we can go Aberporth and get Chinese…”

Declan shook his head. “I’ll go up and ask.” _Tesla looks like he’s ready to vamp out._

Lin nodded, then turned her head and furrowed her brow as she looked at Tesla. _How can he tell?_

“Lin, if you’re going to ask questions, at least give us a hint to what you’re talking about,” Magnus chided softly.

Everyone looked at her and Lin blushed. “Sorry, that was just for me. Didn’t mean to tele-yell it at you.” She leant backwards. “ _Hei Dewi, tro lan y tiwns_!” she yelled.

“ _Beth yw’r gair_?” he yelled back, making Declan wince minutely.

“ _Plis_!”

“ _Na welliant_ ,” they heard him mutter and the music got louder. Turning back, Lin smiled. “I forgot to use my manners.”

“So the barman said he’s not got anyone in the kitchen but he’ll cook us up some chips as its quiet,” Declan explained five minutes later as he placed a tray of drinks on the table. He and Erika had orange juice, Magnus had a tea cup and a little metal tea pot, whilst Tesla and Lin had a glass of red wine each. “I know he’ll complain otherwise, and so will you,” he told them.

“I was going to say a Coke will do me fine, but this is better so thank you, boss!” She grinned. “And to answer an earlier question, no, only a small handful of us are telepathic. My sister Elin isn’t, but she’s wicked smart, when she wants to be. We balance each other out.” She shrugged then sipped her wine. “Hey, this isn’t bad.”

Tesla looked at the glass then at her. Shaking his head, he said, “You poor, ill educated child.”

“Not everyone can drain a Sanctuary of it’s vintage wine from its cellar,” Magnus told him, leaning slightly toward him.

“And not everyone has vampire taste buds,” Lin reminded him, smirking. “Anyways, are we literally just staying here or do you wanna go up or down the coast? Aberporth’s a five minute drive.”

“What’s in Aberporth?” Declan asked.

Erika laughed quietly. “You mean who,” she corrected.

“Be glad these two are here,” Lin answered, pointing at Tesla and Magnus. “My mam taught me to respect my elders…” She sipped her wine, nose in the air. “And not to swear like a sailor around them.”

“Really?!” Magnus replied, straightening her shoulders, her brows furrowing. “I can hear some of your thoughts when you’re not concentrating.”

Lin shrugged and smiled. “Mam never complained about my thoughts.” She caught Magnus’ eyes. _Should I stop?_ she asked carefully.

Helen shook her head. _That’s my point. Nothing you say will shock me._

Lin raised an eyebrow and looked away, grinning.

“I honestly doubt you could,” Magnus’ reiterated verbally.

“Does anyone else find that odd?” Declan asked quietly, more to Erika than the whole group.

“Yes,” Tesla answered, looking into his glass suspiciously.

“Just because you can’t join in,” Magnus said softly, touching his knee with hers. He smirked back at her, with laughter in his eyes.

“Aww, they’re adorable,” Lin stage whispered to Erika, who tried valiantly not to laugh behind her hand. “You’d almost think they -” she paused dramatically “- like each othe-- woah!” A cool hand rested against her forehead, Magnus having placed it there as she looked into her panicked eyes. “What are you doing?” she squeaked.

“You’re not drunk, so possibly a death wish, calling a vampire adorable,” Magnus said as way of explanation, her eyes wide but twinkling.

Lin pulled herself away from Magnus’ hand, but not before--

_\-- Nikola, tied up, silk sheets -- Helen finding a cup on her desk -- Helen and Nikola on her desk --Nikola in a black suit and waistcoat, heartbroken, locking a door -- wine, window seat -- lamplight -- waist unbound -- growing --_

“DON’T!” she yelled, batting Magnus’ hand away and scooting backwards.

That was the moment Dewi turned up with three basketfuls of chips and a huge pile of thick, buttered bread. “Is everything fine here?” he asked, his English words heavily accented.

“Yes, thank you,” Erika answered politely, watching Lin come down from a panic. “She just had a funny moment.”

“Llinos?”

“ _‘Wi’n iawn_ ,” she replied, smiling weakly.

“ _Siwr_?” he asked, the concern evident even if the word sounded slightly odd.

She sighed, and nodded. “ _Odw_.”

He nodded back, and walked away to the bar, everyone but Lin watching him.

“He’s being very familiar for bar staff,” Tesla mentioned, sneering slightly at the chips.

Lin’s shoulders sagged. “He’s distantly related to me… somehow. Dad explained but it’s convoluted, so I never remember it. And even distantly related round here means family.”

Dewi came back over with another tray, with a cup, a metal teapot, bigger than the one Magnus had, and a bowl of grated cheese on it. “ _Yf_ ,” he said quietly.

Accepting everything, she nodded and swirled the pot as steam unfurled from the spout. Carefully, she poured herself a cup of tea, wordlessly (both verbally and mentally) asking Magnus if she wanted a refill.

“You never did say what was in Aberporth,” Magnus commented quietly as Lin put sugar in her cup. Erika had gone up to the bar for some salt, vinegar and ketchup, whilst Declan and Tesla were studiously civil to each other (although, from what Lin could vaguely sense, Declan wasn’t sure why Tesla was behaving so out of character).

She shook her head slowly, gently. “Nothing that can’t wait until tomorrow.” She sipped her tea, smiling at it. “Dad used to say that mam gu on mam’s side would drink tea so hot it was still bubbling. He only figured out this year how she did it.”

“No pain receptors in her mouth?” Magnus asked, leaving her cup on it’s saucer for now.

Lin shook her head and blew on her cup, feeling Magnus wince at her action. “Nope, something way simpler.”

Magnus shrugged. “No idea.”

Lin raised her eyebrows. “All your own teeth, even after all this time, cool. She had dentures.” She grinned, blowing on her tea again then sipping. “Yes, I have manners that would have me kicked out of Downton Abbey soon as look at me,” she added as Magnus kept mentally wincing at Lin’s tea drinking. “I even dunk biscuits.”

Declan laughed explosively at the salacious way she said it.

\--

The weather came in harder after their impromptu dinner, and the howling wind buffeting the building was negated by the soothing clatter of rain on glass panes. The lights stayed on and the fire crackled merrily enough to keep dark thoughts at bay.

Lin, Erika and Declan had retired to their rooms about an hour and a half later, leaving Helen and Nikola to fend for themselves. Dewi had told them he’d be closing the bar area but they were more than welcome to stay and sit by the fire.

“I thought he was going to be telling us stories to make our hair curl?” said Nikola quietly. They had moved to the sofa close to the fire, and Helen was using Nikola’s shoulder as a pillow. He stroked her hair distractedly, looking into the fire, sipping his wine, whilst her hand rested on his waist, her breath gently buffeting his neck at times.

“It could be he forgot,” Helen suggested. “Or he was scared after Lin’s outburst.”

“I wanted to wait until Llinos had gone up,” Dewi told them, having joined them. In his hands he held a framed photo, the image held to his chest so they could only see the backing. “I think this could be a strange conversation without her having those… what do the youngsters call it?” He stopped for a moment to find the words. “Spoilers.” He looked at the picture, then at Helen.

She sat up slightly, wary of the expression on his face, and the way he held the frame.

“This is you,” Dewi announced, holding out the picture. Nikola took it, and she looked at it. There was a woman, in black and white, stood with a family, a small child in her arms. “We only knew her as Elen, and that she was some distant relative to Heddwen Bancroft. She died in 1858, or thereabouts. But I looked her up. She only had one daughter.”

Helen smiled, politely. “How can that be me?”

Dewi shrugged. “I don’t know, but you’re _r’un sbit_ as the woman in the picture…” Glancing between Helen and the frame, Dewi added, “ _Ac mae’r pwdin o’r un badell…_ ” He saw Nikola’s confusion. “The apple doesn’t fall far from the tree? He only died four, five years ago. And we know that’s Noah in the picture.”

Helen swallowed whilst Nikola asked, “When was this taken?”

“Nineteen nought three,” Dewi told them confidently.

Nikola smiled and shook his head. “It couldn’t have been Helen. Look at her. Does she look a hundred plus years?”

Dewi shook his head. “But I know it’s her.” Helen’s face stayed impassive as she listened to him, but the look Dewi gave her was shrewd. “That’s you in the picture.”

Helen jutted out her chin, “And if it is?”

“You still have family here,” Dewi told her, before standing up. His eyes darted between the two of them sat on the sofa, softly adding, “I think maybe you both do.”

Helen looked back at the picture.

_Holding him tight, Helen could feel the prickles in her eyes as he pulled her hair gently. She was going to miss this. Six months wasn’t enough, but she couldn’t be the mother he needed. She had it all planned, and she hated having to make the same gut wrenching choice as eight years ago. Both chances at motherhood sacrificed to her work. “I have to do this,” she whispered, looking into his big blue eyes, coddled as he was in his blankets and her arms._

“Helen?” Worry tinged the single word.

Touching the picture reverently, her face worked, trying to find the words. “He’s right,” she whispered. “That’s… uh, that’s Noah.” She stroked the place where she knew his face was. “And that’s me,” she added, pointing at the woman holding the bundle, hair in a bun, the echo of a sad smile on her face. Drawing in a shuddering breath, she added, almost silently, “And he was ours.

“When I came through the temporal field, after stopping Adam, I worried daily that I would do something to the timeline that I barely moved, barely breathed without the world’s worst headache. Then I hit my stride, I knew what I was meant to do.” She swallowed. “I contacted you. I missed you, this you,” she added, finally looking over at him. His eyes were wide, sending her thoughts back to when he locked her in the main lab. “I missed the Nikola from my timeline, newly revamped, full of suave confidence and cock-sure attitude.” She bowed her head, looking back down at the picture in her hands. “I missed us. I missed us play fighting, I missed your pushing.” She breathed, and almost resisted when Nikola started taking the frame from her. “I missed how I felt around you - sometimes so annoyed but… happy.

“I found you, travelled across America to see you.” She laughed sadly. “I really did need help with the controlled explosions, but it didn’t need to be you helping. I-- I wanted it to be you.” Had needed it to be him, although she’d never admit it. “And there you were, so you but so not. Flirting, but not like I expected, not until I touched your hand.” She looked at the photo frame, held by his fingertips. “I didn’t think my cycle had been affected so much. Until…” She touched her lower abdomen. “I couldn’t freeze this foetus like I had Ashley - I was too far along, and I couldn’t… Couldn’t tell James I had completely ignored his suggestion to hide for a hundred years. And because…”

“Because you needed me, and Nigel to help,” he whispered, remembering the first time around, not looking up.

She nodded. “So I came here. I knew my original self wouldn’t be back - once Mother died I… I followed my father. So I told them I was related to her, and later my predicament.” She shrugged. “They welcomed me. ‘ _Mae crys yn agos ond mae croen yn nes_ ,’ I was told… Family’s family,” she explained. She sat further back in her corner at the end of the sofa, her knees towards Nikola, hands on her thighs. “I hid, like James told me to do. I planned my next move, my next five moves, hoping I could keep this child close. That this new life would grow with me, fall in love with my work, would want to join me, like… Like Ashley had, in her own way.”

“But?” he choked out, not looking at her, not looking at anything.

“I knew I was building castles in the sky? There was no way I could do all I need to do with… with a baby. And I hadn’t been a mother to a babe in arms for over thirty years. I… was scared, and alone, and needed to do what was best for my child. When he was born, I felt bereft. I couldn’t share him with you. I… I had to make do with a Welsh matriarch clucking and fussing. I couldn’t tell you about Noah, and I couldn’t tell anyone about his heritage.”

“The Cabal,” he whispered, remembering how losing Ashley to their testing had affected her. The clock ticked. “Why?”

She blinked, and watched Nikola turn his head to her. “Why?” she repeated, quietly.

“Why didn’t you tell me once you came back? Or after you had destroyed the Sanctuary? Or any countless times since? How could you keep this from me?” He shot up from the sofa, and started pacing.

Helen watched with wide eyes, and said with more than just a touch of defensive ire, “How was I meant to tell you? And when? When you were in SCIU’s pocket? When your firewalled nanite almost destroyed my mainframe?” Her tone went deadly calm as she stood, walking to him. “Or should I have told you over breakfast one morning? ‘Oh, by the way, Nikola, you knocked me up in 1902 but I left the boy in Wales. Pass the milk.’” She stopped in his path, forcing him to look at here. “Or in bed, breathless? How, Nikola? Because I’ve been trying, for years, to tell you.”

“I highly doubt that,” he replied, the sarcasm evident in every word. “You don’t tell anyone anything. You didn’t tell any of us about your plan until after everything happened. No thought to how we might have felt. You…” He stepped back. “You’ve kept knowledge of my child from me. My child, Helen. That’s… That’s not…” He whirled away from her in frustration. “What else?”

“What do you mean?”

He turned his head and glared at her. “You know exactly what I mean. What else haven’t you told me? What else about me should I know? Any more illegitimate children in other countries running around not knowing their parents? Abandoned? Alo--”

“How dare you lecture me about withholding information?” she interrupted, her voice rising. “How often have I had to drag information out of you?”

“How often have you told me everything at once?” he countered, his voice rising too.

“Every damned time Nikola! Do you know how hard this has been?” Tears sprang into her eyes, frustrated. “I had to leave our son with strangers.”

His whole frame went hard again, his face barely staying human as his vampire nature tried to take hold. “You could call him ours. I never had the chance.” The slamming door was his goodbye.


	5. Chapter 4: Where Things Start Happening

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> After the info drop and subsequent argument, Helen and Nikola think on things. The next morning, the fab four start their day's adventure.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here we go, the actual adventuring part (although, typing that, I now have a feeling that's what I said before...). As before, not had this beta read, so if you see a glaring mistake (or just feel like correcting any info I get wrong), please let me know. Otherwise, I hope you enjoy! :D

Nikola walked for hours. The wind blew hard, and would have aggravated his ears had he not been a vampire. Following the clifftop path, he arrived down in Aberporth. Without thinking, he went looking for the nearest church. Noah?

_Gregory wasn’t the only one to like the metaphor_ , he mused, remembering Helen’s test in Bhalasaam. 

Noah.

Noah what? Noah Magnus, did the barman say? Or would he be Noah Bancroft? Sneering, he realised he couldn’t quite go back to ask. It was well after midnight, no-one would be awake who’d know.

And he’d only died five years ago? He’d inherited Helen’s longevity then, or maybe his? Did he have anything else from either of them? Did he have electricity in his blood, or was he more _sanguine vampiris_ , dark eyes and extending nails? Did he fight? Did he invent? Did he help people in need like his mother?

Mother. 

Helen.

“Our son,” chorused in his head in her voice like a whirligig. A child with her. He hadn’t really thought about children of his own - they were so sticky and messy, if Alice was any indication - but suddenly the idea of a child with Helen? Tangible proof that she cared, if only a little, for him? He kicked a stone. 

Noah.

Biblical. His own father would have approved.

The rain had eased in the last hour, but he was still soaked to the bone. He barely noticed. All thoughts were centred around Helen, Noah and how he, Nikola, knew nothing of this. Nothing at all.

He knew Helen could keep a warehouse full of secrets, but he knew a great deal of them.

Didn’t he?

What else did she have hidden away? Who else? Did she ever see this child again?

Did she actually care for him?

\--

“May I sit here?”

Helen looked up, and nodded at Erika. “Couldn’t sleep?”

Erika shook her head as she sat. “I have difficulty sleeping away from Alice. It’s not bad now, but…” Erika smiled. “You know. You saw, I think, how I was.”

Helen nodded.

The two women were silent for a while, lost in their own thoughts. “When Henry and I discussed everything, I worried about how I would be treated. No-one outright said it, but you’re the closest to a mother he has, and neither of us wanted to let you down.”

Helen shook her head, as if it was the strangest thing she’d heard. “Neither of you would.”

Erika smiled kindly, “Well, we both worried. Me more. Henry had Tesla.” Helen stiffened slightly, but Erika continued as if she hadn’t felt it. “They were in the lab one day, and I was about to enter when I stopped. They were talking, and he said, “Heinrich… Henry… Family’s family. Whatever happens, Baby Bites is still your daughter.”” Erika grinned. “And Helen will always be there for all three of you.”

“He could always tell when someone was eavesdropping,” Helen muttered, looking into the fire.

Erika nodded. “He’s almost family to me, which I never expected.”

Helen's laugh was sardonic, the adrenaline from her argument slowly beginning to wear off. “He does that. Never know how he'll react or what he’ll do next. It’s why he’s... interesting.”

“I… I heard you arguing.” Helen looked down, defeated. Erika touched her elbow gently, acutely aware that it wasn’t something she did often. “I don’t know all the details, and it isn’t my place to know them, but should you want to… to talk…” she shrugged, “family’s family.”

Grasping her hand, Helen looked up at Erika’s worried face, her eyes wide, full of need for Helen to trust her, maybe like Erika herself had trusted her a few years ago. “Thank you, Erika.”

The fire crackled merrily in the grate, and Erika didn’t mention the small tears Helen knew was collecting in the corners of her eyes. Instead she talked about enrolling Alice into a school with a nursery, about how she’d be working with Lin in the tech department - “She’s a natural on a computer but she can’t build a Lego house without directions,” - and visiting with her aunt Lillian.

“Does Declan get on with Alice?”

Erika nodded, and Helen had the feeling the smile blossomed without conscious thought, happiness brimming close to the surface. “Splendidly. She’s enjoyed every time she’s visited London.” She paused, then added, “Uncle Nik'la will always be her favourite after daddy though.”

Helen laughed slightly. “Not uncle Will?”

Erika scrunched up her face. “Will’s never too sure how to talk to her, especially since Henry and I broke up.”

“You two are doing so well,” said Helen, “raising her. I don’t think I could have done that with… with Ashley's father.”

“And with Tesla?” Erika prodded gently.

Helen raised her eyebrows and shook her head. “I don’t think not raising a child together would have been an option had… had he had known...” She breathed deeply. “I have made a mess of things.”

Erika shrugged. “I don’t know, if I’m honest.” She picked at a loose thread on the cushion between them. “But you’ll get through. We’re never given anything we can’t overcome.”

Laughing quietly, desperately, the emotions usually so closely held to her chest now fighting to come out, Helen replied, “My mother would say something like that. Usually when Father came home with what I would later find out to be an Abnormal.”

“Your mother worked with Abnormals too?”

Helen half nodded, her head tilting to one side. “In a way. More like Kate, dropping in as and when. Mother had a skill with the more beast like Abnormals, but stepped back when I was born, to take care of me. Father tried to tell her she could have a nanny, but she wouldn’t hear of it.” She paused, caught in the memory. “He told me she’d forget her English when she got passionate about a subject. He picked up some individual words, mostly through the context, but she wouldn’t hold back.”

Erika nodded. “She sounds like she knew what she wanted.”

“It was always the same story, of when I was four and Mother was reading to me.” Helen smiled, remembering the warmth in her father’s tone as he spoke of her. “I should’ve been with a tutor, but Mother had other ideas. They argued until she exploded, ‘She’s our child, Gregory! _Ein dyletswydd ni_.’ Of course Father had no idea what she had said until later.”

“He asked?” Erika sat with her elbow on the back rest, head on her hand.

“Yes. He’d tell me how she’d smile and explain.” She looked back at the fire. “He missed Mother fiercely. I think it’s partly why he threw himself into his work.” She rolled her eyes. “And because he enjoyed it too. It made him feel close to her again.”

Erika nodded, her eyes slowly getting heavy in the calm. “Did you feel close to her?”

“Through my work?” Helen thought for a moment. “No, not really. I felt closer to Father, as he introduced me to his world. Mother was dead by then, and all I had were good memories of her sitting, sewing, keeping the house in order, visits to Wales…” She closed her eyes sadly. “I felt closer to her when I was here in my loop than I ever did as a child.” Slowly, she looked at Erika, who was yawning behind her hand, and smiled softly. “Someone had better go to bed. We have a long day tomorrow.”

Erika’s brow furrowed. “Are you sure? I… I can stay here, if you want the company,” she told her, the words coming out in a rush.

Helen shook her head. “No, you need your rest. I’ll be alright.” She rolled her eyes and smiled wryly. “I have reports to read and sign off on before I get a wink of sleep.” Even in the bubble of camaraderie, Helen didn’t like the idea of admitting how deep her feelings were for Nikola.

“Does he realises how much you care?” Erika asked aloud, not realising.

“I… I think so?” Helen replied, slightly taken aback by the personal question. “He… I… He’s my oldest friend, and…”

“I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to pry,” Erika explained, holding her hands up in surrender. Standing up, she stretched. “Really, Doctor Magnus, if you want to talk…”

She nodded. “I know, Erika… And perhaps you can call me Helen?”

Erika flushed slightly. “I know. It’s just… Hard.” She shrugged. “Goodnight, Helen.”

“Goodnight Erika.”

Alone again, Helen got up and prodded the fire. Deciding that discretion was the better part of valour, she banked up the fire and headed to bed. Nikola was an immortal vampire. He’d… 

Her breath caught in her throat. Brushing her waist and ignoring the gnawing feeling in her gut, she knew things would be clearer in the morning. Maybe not better, but clearer.

\--

She left their window open. If he came back, if he didn’t, she felt better for it.

\--

Helen awoke the next morning to the sound of seagulls crying, the smell of the sea and, her heart skipped a beat, of Nikola. Reaching behind her, having slept with her back to the window, her fingers searched for something but she was alone. There was no-one there. Sighing, her arm flopped onto the mattress, her body rolling over, following the movement. Before her eyes lay a note.

So he had been here.

_Do Rinascorpa Reticuli converge by the sea?_  
Nikola  
PS I’m still angry at you but I thought you’d like to know. 

Her brow furrowed as she sat up. No, the rina scorpions were fond of electricity and warmth, not the cold, Welsh coast. “Where did he see them? And how were they behaving? And…” She suddenly stopped, her face darkening, her shoulders stiffening. Just like Nikola, one morsel of information at a time. Folding the note, she put it on the bedside table, to the back of her mind, and got ready for her day.

\--

Breakfast was a noisy affair. Not only were Helen and her contingent eating in the dining room, so were half of Tresaith, or so it felt. Lin was barely talking - both headphones in, music playing loudly - and eating enough for three people. Declan sat sipping black coffee (Helen’s stomach turned, as it always did, when the aroma hit her), reading the local paper, almost as if he was waiting for something to happen. Erika watched everyone else in the dining room, drinking her orange juice and eating slowly.

No-one mentioned Nikola’s absence.

“We could go up the coast, towards Penbryn,” Lin finally offered as a suggestion, realising she was the one who knew the area as it was now. The dining room was finally empty, and she was moodily eating her second bowl of Coco Pops.

_Where does she put it all?_ Helen wondered idly as she ate her own breakfast.

_Toward mental barriers that have been shit these last forty eight hours,_ Lin informed her tersely, not looking up from her bowl.

Helen nodded. “Excuse my intrusion,” she said politely.

The younger woman shook her head, still not looking up. “De nada.”

Declan put down his newspaper and looked critically at Lin. Looking over to Erika and Helen, they shared a worried glance.

“It’s nothing,” she growled, taking out a headphone. “Stop looking at me. I just have a headache. And not from my music.” Resting her forehead in her hand as she finished her breakfast, she explained, “I didn’t get to sleep until after one, and I had this headache slowly creep up on me then.” She waved away their concerns with the hand holding her spoon. “I just get them sometimes. And, no, Dec, it’s not a brain tumour.”

“You’ve had--”

“A whole battery of tests performed, yes,” Lin interrupted, not apologising. “Just let me finish my Coco Pops, my tea, and stamp on whatever’s sending out the continuous, low level telepathic drone.”

“But the way I understood it your music was meant to stop that,” Helen commented, slowly drinking her tea.

Lin flushed. “Not at night. I can’t sleep with music on.”

“But you are actually sleeping?” Helen asked, slipping into doctor mode.

Lin shrugged. “Everyone else is asleep, and dreams aren’t that strong, so I can rest my brain and my ears.” She drank her tea. “So yeah, I’m just grumpy and tired.”

Helen cast one finally look at her before nodding her acceptance. “Declan?”

He nodded. “Erika and I will head north. Reports suggested that whatever this is, it’s between here and there. If you and Lin can head down to Aberporth? Dewi said that people have been complaining about headaches and electricity spikes--”

“Oh!” Helen put down her cup of tea, half way as it was to her mouth. “I had a note this morning about some _rinascorpa reticuli_ in the area.”

“Don’t they prefer warmer places?” Erika asked, all four of them now leaning forward on the table, in case they could be overheard.

Helen nodded, eyes wide. “Yes, which was why I hadn’t thought about them. Their energy field has a way of causing problems in the cerebellum and midbrain.” They glanced at Lin. “It could be why your mental barriers are taking a battering.”

“But why would they head south?” Erika asked.

“They test UAVs for the military down there,” Lin muttered, still not quite got the energy to fully lift up her head. “Maybe they’re attracted to that?”

Helen baulked. “Military?” _Dear Lord, Nikola, what have you got yourself tangled up in now?_

Lin shook her head. “Scientists now. Not had proper DoD presence here in years. But they might be attracted to the energy from there.”

Having discussed it, all four went to their rooms, grabbed what they needed, and met by the car. Helen sat in the back with Lin, as Declan had commandeered his keys from her, and off they went.

_You could always send him a message, just to be careful._

Helen looked over at Lin, who had one headphone in her ear, the other hooked to the top of her sweatshirt. She shook her head. _No. I’m just going to leave him alone._

_Is that wise?_

_Knowing Nikola Tesla, yes and no._ Helen shook her head again. _If he gets in trouble, he’ll call. Like he always does._ Vitriol dripped from every unspoken word.

This was when Lin faced her, and raised her hands in surrender. “Just a suggestion.”

“And I’ll thank you to keep them to yourself,” Helen retorted softly, looking out of her window.

“You may as well drop us off by the cafe here,” Lin told Declan, leaning towards his right ear. Helen took a deep breath and grabbed her backpack, glad that it wasn’t in the boot.

The cafe was in a dip, opposite the ramp down to the beach. Being that it was the off season, and early, it wasn’t open. Neither was the pub next to it. A few cars ambled by the pair, the occupants staring at the two women who looked like their own opposites. Helen had reservations about some of Lin’s choice of clothes - the jeans were fine, but a black hooded sweatshirt? Battered walking shoes that had seen better days? Worst of all, no coat or jacket to speak of but a thick, woollen, crochet hat with a massive pompom at its peak.

“Round here, people look odd at women wearing knee high boots,” Lin muttered. “They look odd at women in pompom hats too,” she conceded, “but they look oddly at anyone who isn’t local.” She shrugged. “Where to first, boss lady?”

\--

“Do you think we did the right thing, leaving Lin with Helen?” Erika asked as Declan drove up the coast to Penbryn. “I don’t think either is in a good mood.”

He turned his head minutely to smile at her, whilst keeping his eyes on the road. “They’ll either kill each other or take over the village.” He reached across to hold her hand. “Lin doesn’t stay angry for long.”

Erika raised her eyebrows. “But around Helen Magnus? She acts serene but…”

They fell into a comfortable silence, listening to the classical music on the radio. 

“When did you start calling Magnus ‘Helen’?”

Erika smiled. “She invited me to do so about a year ago. I didn’t feel comfortable doing it though.”

“Until today?”

She canted her head from side to side. “Last night.” Declan made a noise of confusion, so Erika said, “She…” She sighed, changing her sentence. “I was still awake - I called Henry to see how Alice’s day had gone - and saw Tesla leave in a hurry. I didn’t hear anyone come up the stairs so…” She shrugged. “I just… When Henry and I were arguing, when I had difficulty with Alice, she would sometimes sit with me. Not talking or anything.” Erika looked down at her hand holding Declan’s.

“Is that why he wasn’t at breakfast?”

She shook her head. “He doesn’t always join us when we’re in the Sanctuary.” Erika straightened her shoulders. “Do you know how stomach turning it is to watch the three musketeers here eat?”

“What if Abby was there?” Declan asked saucily, having rather missed the spectacle that was breakfast in Magnus’ Sanctuary.

Smirking, Erika parroted Tesla’s, “Oh joy, the Pevensies. Pretty sure Christmas has been.”

“They were siblings?”

“Exactly what Helen said,” Erika replied, laughing. “Nikola, there’s no need for that,” she answered her own impression. Her face fell slightly. “It’s going to be strange, not breakfasting with them.” She turned to face him. “But much better being up here.”

Bringing their joined hands up, he kissed her knuckles. “Definitely.”

\--

“Come on, I know we’re meant to be looking for these scorpion things, or Tesla, but I need to go to my _hen dad-cu_ ’s grave - it’s on the way - or mam will murderise me. We might get an idea of what to do as we walk, or hear something from someone.” Without waiting, Lin turned left and started moving, an earbud in her left ear, eyes on the road making sure no-one ran her over.

“ _Hen dad-cu_?” Helen asked, finally catching up to her.

Lin nodded. “My great grandfather. Well, great great grandfather. We just call them old in Welsh.” Looking up the hill, Lin sighed. “I hate that churches are built on hills. I get why, but I’m lazy, and London’s pretty flat so I’m out of practice.”

Helen let out a breath. “It’s mostly flat where I live now,” she said as they both started up the hill. “There are some hill-like areas but nothing like this.”

“Further inland is worse. Ellie and I used to hate walking to school. Hills, and because it was ages away, and they wouldn’t bus kids under a mile away, which is fine, fair enough, but in the rain? It was hell.” Lin fiddled with her phone, slowing down her pace.

“Come on Price, get those knees working,” Helen told her, walking up the hill backwards.

“There’s something disconcerting about your joy,” Lin told her, putting her phone away. “And I had a PE teacher who’d say things like that.” She paused her talking for a few seconds as they walked. “I hated her.”

“Oh, she couldn’t have been that bad,” Helen told her.

“Except I could hear her thoughts?” Lin reminded her. “They weren’t always positive, let’s put it that way.”

Helen tilted her head. “I’m sorry, I assumed you were homeschooled, because of your telepathy.”

Lin shook her head, grabbing onto the bottom of her shoulder straps to stop her arms from swinging. “Mam and dad didn’t have the time or patience to teach us at home, but that’s ok. I learnt what I needed to from mam regarding my telepathy, and Elin could somehow act as a breaker for me, so there was that.”

“You can’t read your own sister?”

Lin shook her head. “I can, but… You know in _Harry Potter_ when Snape tries to teach Harry Occlumency?” Helen nodded. “Elin can do that. I think it’s part of her super brain. She swears down that she could feel me reaching sometimes. Uncle Tris can do it too, cause of mam, but he’s older so maybe he naturally guarded his thoughts better? I don’t know.”

Helen nodded. “I often wondered what having a sibling would be like… Or, at least, I did as a child. As I grew older, made friends of my own--”

_Fell in love_ , Lin added mentally, although Helen wasn’t sure if she had meant for her to hear that, as she hadn’t stopped in her march up the hill.

She quirked her eyebrows, “-- I stopped worrying about something I couldn’t change.”

“Sounds like a good idea,” Lin answered, smiling. “So, can I ask you something? I don’t think it’s super personal, but you might because it’s to do with your friends…”

“Oh?” Helen asked, slightly worried but much happier to deal with this less moody Lin.

She rubbed her head through her hat. “How come James Watson took over your Sanctuary in London? Why did you go to America? When did you find the time to make your Sanctuary?”

Helen held her hand up to the onslaught of questions. “Hadn’t realised something now meant three,” she replied, half smiling.

“Eh,” Lin answered, shrugging. “So… yeah?”

“I found the time, as it were, because I followed someone back in time,” Helen explained. “I knew where to go, so I went. I built. And when I knew the Hollow Earth abnormals began their uprising, I slowly transferred the residents down there.” She smiled. “As for America, you’re correct, it is personal and I’d rather not discuss it. James in the London Sanctuary?” She smiled softly. “I wouldn’t have trusted anyone else there. He knew how I felt about my work, how I wanted things to go, how I wanted the Abnormals to feel safe. He had a keen intellect and a good eye, not just for case details but for people too.”

“That’s why he was so hurt when he discovered some Druitt guy was Jack the Ripper. What?”

Helen had stopped. “How did you know that?”

Lin shrugged, her face open and guileless. “It’s in one of his old case files, or a journal he wrote. I just… remember reading it.” She leant against a stonework wall. “It wasn’t that black and white, but you learn to read between the lines with reports.” She pointed. “We’re almost there.”

As far as cemeteries went, this one was small, and peaceful. Yew trees dotted the area, and Helen could swear she could hear the sea over the sharp, staccato bursts of wind. Over in the far corner, under the boughs of a tree and the shade of a stonework wall, stood a gravestone much newer than the rest - black granite from the looks of it.

“Hia _dad-cu_ No’,” Lin greeted the headstone.

Helen drew in a long breath, her eyes wide as she realised who Lin’s hen dad cu was.

“Hey, you ok boss lady?” Lin asked quietly.

Helen rounded on her with fury in her eyes. “Did you hear…? How…?”

Lin held out her hands to try and keep her back. Without thought to the consequence, Helen grabbed one.

\--

_“Nikola?” She reached across the table, the candlelight glittering in his eyes._

_He shook his head and smiled, not smirked, and Helen’s heart skipped a beat. She forgot that; how he did know how to smile, not smirk. “I’m just wondering why the great Helen Magnus is here, enjoying this particularly fine chablis, with me? Surely not just for my knowledge of deep water explosives?”_

_“I can’t have dinner with a friend?” she asked._

_He tilted his head and raised an eyebrow and Helen could see some of the sardonic attitude that would suffuse him in the future. “A friend?”_

_She licked her lips, quirking her eyebrow. “Best friend?”_

_“I can feel your heartbeat Helen, and it tells a different story.”_

_\--_

_He escorted her back to her hotel, a tidy, nondescript building. “Come up for a nightcap?” She grinned at his reaction, eyes on stalks. Her original self might not have been so bold with him, couching her request in scientific inquiries and, ‘You must see this book,’ but, older? She had no qualms._

_And she missed him._

_Nodding, his hand squeezed hers as they walked inside._

_\--_

_Whoever was cooking bacon had to stop, Helen decided as her stomach churned again. And she needed something to stop the spinning in her head. She hated vertigo at the best of times, and didn’t need this now._

_\--_

_The flutterings in her lower abdomen had been her first flag. She’d had that once before. Finding a calendar, she counted. Counted days, counted backwards, counted forwards, and they all came back to one day._

_One night._

_Nikola. New York._

_\--_

_“Ie?” The older woman had a shock of snow white hair, a stern demeanour and Patricia’s eyes. Helen’s eyes._

_“Siarad Saesneg?” she asked carefully, knowing full well how her aunt could be about the English._

_Nodding, Mary Bancroft waited patiently. Helen smoothed her hands down her dress, acutely aware how tight it was getting around her middle. “I… I’m related to Patricia. I…”_

_“Heddwen? She died in eighteen fifty eight,” Mary told her._

_Helen nodded. “I… I know. I…” She sensed Mary looking her up and down, analysing her and her intentions._

_“Dere,” she muttered, opening the door into the kitchen._

_\--_

_“Dere mlaen, Elen, bron ‘di beni!”_

_Pain tore through her abdomen with each contraction. Sweating, exhausted, in agony, Helen pushed again, hating the midwife’s, ‘Almost done!’ God this hurt worse than Ashley._

_“Wi gallu gweld y pen!” said the midwife from between Helen’s legs. “Gwthia ‘to.”_

_Helen shook her head. “Na,” she muttered, over and over, no energy left to push._

_“Baby's almost here, come on,” Mary told her close to her head, brushing back her hair._

_Bearing down, Helen felt the pressure recede almost all at once as the baby’s head finally came out. “Bach ar y tro nawr Elen.”_

_Hearing the high pitched cry, Helen wept when she held him._

_\--_

_The dreams were the worst. Nikola, holding Noah, eyes full of wonder at this small bundle of theirs._

_Nikola and Noah, playing._

_Nikola entertaining Noah with his electricity._

_Nikola leaving when he realised she’d hid Noah from him._

_\--_

_“I’m so sorry,” she told him, bundled as he was against her. “If I could, I’d take you with me, but where I’m going… You wouldn’t be safe.” She stroked his rounded cheek, so soft and warm. “My dear, sweet Noah. Mummy loves you so much.” She looked out over the coast, and listened to all the sounds of the sea - the birds calling, children playing, the roar of the tide. “Maybe one day I can come back, bring your father too.”_

_“Elen?”_

_She looked at Mary, knew her own eyes were shining with unshed tears. Feeling both very old and very young in that split second moment, she nodded._

_Tomorrow. She’d be leaving tomorrow. Without Noah._

_\--_

_Running through a cobbled street, Nikola beside her, completely unaware._

_Nikola, kissing her in her Viennese hotel room._

_\--_

_Finding him in Rome, hole to the chest, a hole forming in hers._

_Cutting a short slice by her inner elbow, she dripped her blood into his mouth. He had to live._

_“Helen?” Weak. Small._

_“Think of it as something cooler...”_

_\--_

_Years underground, never tempting herself with thoughts of checking Tresaith. She couldn’t bear the thought of him dead. Surely he would be by now? She left all well enough alone._

_\--_

_Exploding Old City’s Sanctuary._

_Finding Henry and Nikola._

_Nikola crushing her to him._

_Henry hugging them both._

_Tears._

_So close._

_\--_

_“Nikola…? I…” A ringing phone._

_\--_

_“Nikola, before you go, I--” A baby’s cry._

_\--_

_“Nikola? I--” Farnsworth. Will and his obsession with Coco Pops._

_\--_

_“How could you keep this from me? … You kept knowledge of my child from me. My child, Helen. That’s… That’s not…”_

_“I had to leave our son behind,” she yelled._

_“You could call him ours. I never had the chance.”_

\--

Batting Helen’s hand away, Lin stepped back, falling onto the grass with a thud. “Well shit, no wonder you were stressed this morning!” Lin pointed out. “I’m sorry, I didn’t know…” She blanched, then made a face. “I need brain bleach.”

“What? Why?” Helen asked, her panicked feelings slowly rising again.

Lin shook her head. “You don’t want to know.”

Helen looked down at the grave. “Didn’t anyone wonder why he lived so long?”

Lin nodded. “Everyone did, but he just said it was because of his superior genetics--” Helen snorted, having heard that before from Nikola himself “-- before drinking the latest Jack the Lad under the table. He did that until he died.”

“I see where you get it from,” Helen said dryly.

Lin held her hands up, shrugging. “Girl’s gotta do what a girl’s gotta do to drive an awesome car.”

“That wasn’t what I meant.”

She nodded. “I know.” Looking between Helen and the grave, Lin said, “Do you think… Do you want to know anything about him?”

Helen nodded, then shook her head. “I... not right now.”

“... Because you want Tesla to hear the stories too?” Lin asked carefully.

Helen paused, tilted her head and replied, “More along the lines of having to find these rina scorpions, and the sirens.” She nodded. “But yes, I would like Nikola to hear those stories too.” _If he ever wants to..._

Lin nodded. “Ok...” She didn’t mention Helen’s doubt.

“Just don’t call me grandma,” Helen warned as they walked away from the grave.

“Spoil all my fun.”


	6. Chapter 5: The Sirens

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Our first glimpse of the sirens, and they're not quite what we thought they were. And Helen and Lin are still walking.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Fair warning, right now - Lin has a foul mouth when she's stressed, and she's stressed here.
> 
> But otherwise, I hope you all enjoy. Any comments, positive or critical, let me know in the comment box. (And if you catch any mistakes, let me know. I am only human, after all.)

“Magnus, we may have a problem,” Declan told her over the Farnsworth.

“Oh?” she asked, both her and Lin’s faces filling up Declan’s screen.

Declan looked at Erika before looking back at the screen. Only Magnus’ face filled the screen now. “What we thought was a natural occurrence has turned out to be a science experiment.”

“There’s evidence of human occupation here,” Erika added. “But they haven’t been here for a few weeks.”

“And the sirens?”

Declan nodded, “Asleep, as far as we can tell. They’re not by the entrance”

Magnus looked perturbed. “Sirens are usually diurnal. Could this be part of the experiment?”

Declan and Erika both shook their heads. “Don’t know, guv, but we’re heading back into the cave after talking to you.”

“Well,” Magnus said, knowing her cue in this type of conversation, “we’ve not found much here about the scorpions, but Lin has a theory about that.”

The field of vision turned and Lin filled the screen, Magnus presumably holding up the handset. “So the testing place for Aberporth is like a mile or two south. It’s probably why the scorpions were attracted to here in the first place? Lots of energy here for them to eat.”

“They don’t eat the energy,” Magnus muttered to her off camera.

“Either way, big pool of electricity. So I’m thinking Ma-- Magnus and I walk over there, scout the place out… Maybe see about getting in under the auspices of some fancy dango thing.” She blinked. “Why is everyone looking at me like I’ve sprouted another head?”

“Auspices?” Declan asked, laughing a bit in surprise.

“I read,” Lin replied, “duh.”

“Sounds like a good plan. Contact us when you get there.”

“Will do boss. And if the sirens wake, there’s bird seed in Erika’s backpack.” The screen went blank as Lin or Magnus closed the Farnsworth.

“Once more unto the breach?” Declan asked, turning his head to look at Erika, who was busily looking through the outer pockets of her backpack. There was the birdseed, hidden under the bag’s waterproof cover. Laughing, Erika nodded.

“I thought she was joking when she said she was packing this,” Erika explained, at the entrance of the sirens’ lair. To the untrained eye, it looked like a natural cave in the unforgiving face of the cliff. Declan knew it wasn’t, having spent enough time in the military to see where the explosives would have been laid to get that shape.

Having taken his stunner out of his bag, he motioned for Erika to follow behind him. Whilst he knew, on some level, that Erika could very well shoot for herself (why else would she have been in Magnus' Sanctuary had she not been able to shoot in a vaguely taught way), he was the leader, so he would be the one to take point. The fact there was only two of them did very little for his nerves, but the sirens were asleep.

Weren't they?

Magnus had said they were usually day creatures, who slept at night, except all the evidence they had seen (the biggest one being that they hadn't seen a siren yet) suggested nocturnal creatures. Had whoever done this experiment altered these abnormals in such a way that they ignored their primal need to sleep at night and sing during the day?

Erika had her stunner out now, and, with a wary eye, they walked further in. They had only taken a quick glance to confirm what it was they were looking at before contacting Magnus, but now they would be going in further. "Sweep of the room, shoot only if you have to do so. I wonder how many rooms there are here?"

"I wonder how many sirens?” she pondered. Looking around the room, she added, “They usually live in matriarchal groups, and they tend to be between eight and fourteen sirens."

"Really?" Declan asked, having not heard that before.

Erika nodded as she cleared her side of the room. "Really," she confirmed. "Clear. It's also why mermaids and sirens are so often confused by people. Mermaids live in groups, but much larger than the sirens.” Her smile was a touch sardonic. “And sirens really like the sea."

He nodded, listening as he looked around the room. "Clear here too…” He put his gun down, but didn’t holster it. “Do you think there's anything on the computer that you'd be able to get off?"

Erika shrugged. "I'd have to look at it first. If the people running the experiment haven't been here for weeks, it could be they wiped the hard drives before they left."

"But if they wiped the drives, wouldn't they have destroyed the sirens?" he asked as Erika sat down at a desk.

"Maybe in their tinkering with their genetics, they made the sirens hardier? Hopefully not immortal though," she offered, smiling. “I’m not even-- oh!”

The computer came to life. They watched as the computer went through it’s usual start up routine, to come face to face with an emblem Declan hoped he wouldn’t see again for the longest time.

The Queen’s Horses.

He groaned, and let his hands hold his head. “I’d really hoped I’d seen the last of them when I became head of the Sanctuary after James,” he told her, rubbing his eyes.

“Are they really that bad?” Erika ask quietly, her movements with the mouse efficient as she began her work on the computer.

“They make the Cabal look like the Scouts, and SCIU like a school’s chess club,” he told her. “They’re one of MI6’s abnormal branches, dealing with non-humanoid abnormals. The Queen’s Men… You get the idea?” Erika nodded, so he carried on. “When I was first promoted to Lance Corporal, I heard the whispers about them, how they made Britain safe from enemies both foreign and domestic. What I didn’t know, and wouldn’t find out until I became a Sergeant, was that their enemies were still British, but not some nut job working for the IRA as I had assumed.”

“They dealt with abnormals,” Erika presumed, glancing from the monitor to him.

Declan nodded again. “They wanted my opinion on something - can’t remember so there’s no point asking me - and being that my commanding officer had been the man next to me, and he didn’t trust them, I believe we left them saying, ‘Nope, no way. Find someone else.’” He smirked. “Or at least words to that effect.”

“Weren’t you worried they might take your rank away?” she asked, looking for a USB port.

He laughed darkly. “I would’ve liked to see them try. They might work for MI6, but I outrank them in the Who Has The Best Workplace stakes. Did so even when I wasn’t in the Sanctuary.” He smiled as he got up from their shared desk. “They couldn’t touch me although they did try to pinch me more than once.”

“What happened then?” Erika asked, digging out a memory stick as Declan walked around, on the lookout for suspicious activity.

“The first few times, I could tell them to go hang. They became more insistent the further up the chain of command I went.” He chuckled. “I could have had them all dancing the macarena, that’s how much they wanted me there, with them. Willingly.”

“Why willingly?” she asked, distractedly scan reading reports as she found them on the pc.

“Some abnormals work better with a willing member of the Sanctuary, or whoever is around. Most of them in the London house are all fairly relaxed, even now,” he told her. “The Queen’s Horses, and Queen’s Men, wanted a place like the Sanctuary, but for experimentation, for horrific tests to, ‘Better understand the human condition.’ They wanted me in that, and whatever connections I’d made on my way up the ranks.” He went quiet as he looked out the door opposite the one they came in. “The day James offered me a job, I knew I was in the right place.”

Erika smiled. “And then what happened?”

Declan tapped the side of his stunner. “James told them, in no uncertain terms, that I had Sanctuary now. No-one could call me back to active duty, to force me to comply to their wishes.”

Erika stopped what she was doing and looked at him, her eyes narrowing. “How? When Helen destroyed the Old City Sanctuary, Will had been taken over by SCIU…”

“In the UK, the Sanctuary is protected by Royal Decree. Anyone given sanctuary by the head of house cannot be made to leave, even if they step off the grounds.”

“So when you claim sanctuary in London…?”

Declan nodded. “No member of staff is handed to the authorities. We govern ourselves.”

“Except now there’s only London, Tokyo, Johannesburg and... Asuncion? Not much to govern…”

He shrugged then, whilst looking at the computer monitor, asked, “Was there anything?”

Erika’s face scrunched up. “I’m not completely certain, but there wasn’t too much so I grabbed it all to go over back in the village.”

“Right, shall we carry on?”

They walked forward, clearing two more rooms before coming to a large area that smelt like an odd mix between an owlery and the seaside. They had found the sirens’ den, and they were all clustered in a group in the centre of the room. They slept in a big cuddle huddle, but there wasn’t anything delightfully decadent about their sleeping arrangement. They lay almost as if a child had thrown them into a pile at day’s end.

“Are they…?”

Erika sniffed the air, following her Lycan instincts. She smiled, worry evident on her features. “They’re alive. But…” She sniffed again, stepping forwards. “There’s something not quite right. I think… Think one is hurt.” She looked at him. “I have no idea if I can get close enough to see which one needs medical attention, and if I could get close, I might not be able to give the right help.”

He nodded, coming level with her. “We’re leaving cameras, so we can keep an eye on them.”

“Why were they left behind?” Erika wondered aloud. Although he said nothing, Declan thought exactly the same thing.

\--

“I know you wanted to wait until we’d found Tesla, so I won’t tell you about my family as I know it,” Lin said, “but can you tell me about your family?”

Helen kept her eyes forward. “Not right now.”

Lin nodded. “Cool. _Dim probs_.” They kept walking. Every so often Lin would think of something to say, face her boss ( _great great great grandmother, what?_ ) and think better of it.

_Holy fuck._ Lin looked at Helen again, steadfastly looking forwards. _Fuck… Fuck. How the fuck is anyone meant to deal with this? Especially while they’re working? What the everloving actual fuck? What the fuck am I going to do? Shit._

Taking out her phone, and switching songs, Lin went back to her minor meltdown. _Erika’s gonna have a bloody field day with this! Bloody hell. Fuck fuck fuck. ‘Hi, I’m Llinos and I have a crush on my great great great--_

“What?” Helen stopped and whirled around.

“What?” Lin asked as she stopped next to her, taking out a headphone, eyes wide.

“You were tele-yelling again,” Helen explained.

Lin blanched, shaking her head. “No I wasn’t,” rushed out of her mouth.

“Yes you were,” Helen confirmed.

Groaning, Lin muttered, “Can the earth just swallow me right now?” She started walking again. “I’m just gonna keep walking until I’m away from all the embarrassment today has given me.”

“How far do you think you’ll have to go?” Helen asked.

Lin paused. “Shropshire.”

“You might be heading in the wrong direction,” Helen told her. “It’s only a crush. It’ll pass.”

“You don’t get it,” Lin muttered. “It’s not the crush… Well, it is the crush.” She shook her head, growling. “The crush is unimportant. It’s just... the weird stuff happens to me. All the bloody time.”

“Now you’re being dramatic.”

“Really? Team up with the coolest woman this side of Wonder Woman, manage not to trip up over my own feet, but then show her the grave of her dead son? Who just so happens to be my _hen dad cu_? No reason for dramatics at all there, you don’t think?”

Helen shook her head. “I’m not as cool as Wonder Woman--”

Lin snorted. “You’re wearing leather, lace up, knee high boots in Wales, in winter, and they’re not riding boots. You have at least two handguns on you, if not three, and a small stun gun, and you can talk military with Declan. Plus you know more languages than sense, can actually do that whole fighting thing and you’re… you!” She flung her hands in front of her as if showing the world that, yes, she was speaking of Helen Magnus. “You’re awesome and somehow… I’m not.”

“Four guns, actually,” she murmured. Louder, “You’re twenty five, hardly any age,” Helen reminded her, starting to walk again. “And we’re part of the Sanctuary, so ‘weird stuff’, as it were, is part of the whole experience.”

“How am I meant to stay in the Sanctuary being your great great great grandchild?”

“Less greats please?” Helen muttered.

“What if Declan and Erika start treating me differently? What if it becomes too awkward in the Sanctuary? What if I have to leave…?” _I’m not coming back here._

“Lin…” Helen sighed. “Llinos. We haven’t much time to be worrying about things that won’t happen, and they won’t happen because Declan isn’t twelve. Neither are you or Erika,” _although you are behaving like a teenager,_ “so stop, because we need to get to the old RAF base. We need to find out about the scorpions.”

Lin nodded “I know. I’m sorry. I’m just… I’m just scared. And not just of the sirens and the scorpions.” She watched the floor as she walked. “Haf… Haf dragged my name through the dirt backwards for being different. It’s why I moved to London in the first place. Get as far away as possible.” She shook her head, and looked up at the grey sky. “And now I’m rambling. I just… Wish life was easy.”

The small, dark chuckle that escaped Helen’s lips caught Lin’s attention, even through the thump of her rock music in her ear. “You’re not the only one.” She sighed. “But life isn’t made to be easy. It-- Hello? What’s that?” She pointed inland, to a pocket of land decorated with chain fences and barbed wire curls.

“We must be getting closer,” Lin muttered, looking at her phone. “See, Google Maps…” She glanced at her boss, and back to her phone. “It’s still considered a danger zone. If we want to find the building, we might be doing well following the fence.”

\--

They walked along the fence inland for another mile and a half, the whole time spent in silence. Helen got better at ignoring the random commentary that would sneak through Lin’s barriers, and the swear words were getting fewer and farther between. However, something much odder came through.

Images from nursery rhymes.

Counting fingers, two little dogs, a multicoloured goat, a jackdaw on a roof.

“Why are you thinking of saucepans?” Helen asked, when she finally decided they should stop for ten minutes. She had wanted to carry on, but Lin was falling behind.

Lin folded over herself, hands on her knees, trying to catch her brain up to the conversation. “Why wha--?” Panting, she shook her head. “You’ve never heard _Sosban Fach_? They sing it at every Welsh rugby match!”

Helen leant against the fence pole, her backpack by her feet. “Imagine I don’t know everything for a moment, Miss Price.”

Lin looked up sharply from her position, eyebrows raised. “Wow, distance much? _Sosban Fach_ is just an old folk song. We used to sing it as we walked. But I’ll shut up.”

Helen's frustration made itself known, her eyes narrowed. “I’m not…”

“There’s obviously something wrong otherwise you wouldn’t be doing the silent treatment,” Lin told her. “A mile and a half? Do you know how hard I’ve been trying to keep you out? Because all you’ve been doing is going round and round in your head like… You’ve just been…” A growl of exasperation exploded from her. “This is only going to get harder and and and you won’t say anything!”

“Harder? How do you figure that?”

Lin shrugged. “Why should I tell you? You’re not telling me anything…”

“I’m your employer,” Helen reminded her, trying to stay calm, “I don’t have to tell you everything.”

“I’m not asking for everything!” Lin argued. “I just want to know about my great great great grandmother, have a bit of, not sympathy but you know, support or whatever, to give her some support too cause, oh hi, I showed her her son’s grave. Kinda stuck on that by the way because I didn’t know I was related to the great, stupendous, awesome--”

Helen shook her head, eyes steel grey in the face of Lin’s outpouring of adoration. “Do you not know how to be quiet? All you do is talk and talk so no-one gets a chance to speak!”

Lin squared her jaw. “Fuck this. All I do is listen, even when I don’t want to. All I get is voices all the time.” She pointed away from the fence. “I’m going that way. Unless there’s some reason I should be st--” The words stopped. She shook her head. “Some rea--” The word choked again, the force of something making her knees buckle. “Oh. OH! Oww. Gah-- God, what the ac-- ugh.” Sitting on the floor, the wetness quickly spreading through the material of her jeans, Lin rested her elbows on her knees and rubbed her forehead.

“Lin?” Helen asked, kneeling next to her, her hand on the younger woman’s shoulder.

“Feel…” She blew a raspberry, turning her thumb downwards. “Someone needs help. They’re yelling. It really-- ugh,” she panted between her knees. “They’re…”

“Ok, Lin, I need to check your pulse. Can you concentrate on not getting all my thoughts?” Helen asked, trying to catch her eye.

Lin groaned, and nodded once. “Wanna throw up…”

“Are you going to?”

“I-- uh…” She shook her head. “No.” Looking at Helen, she tried to smile. “Best check my pulse before…” She pointed to her head before letting the finger move arc away from her.

Gently, Helen touched her fingers to the pulse point in Lin’s neck.

_Helen on a monitor, her own heart skipping -- Helen in Declan’s office, her own lungs devoid of oxygen -- warmth -- admiration -- arousal -- panic --_

Helen swallowed, and looked at Lin, wide eyed. “Oh.”

“Sorry,” Lin murmured as Helen sat back on her heels. “At least I didn’t get your thoughts?”

She nodded. “There is that.” Not knowing what to say (Helen remembered, all too well, those first flutters of feelings for someone, even if now things were decidedly odd relations wise), she rubbed her hands on her thighs and stood up. “Is it easing?”

“The headache or my deep embarrassment?” she muttered into her hands, not looking up. “It’s going,” she said, a bit louder.

“Can you walk?”

“Been able to since I was fifteen months old.”

“I meant now.”

Sagging, Lin rubbed her eyes and head one more time, before pushing herself up. “I… I think so. God, I could do with a cuppa right now.” Taking a deep breath, she looked at Helen. “If I didn’t know any better, I’d say dearest, darlingest great great great grandpappy is in danger…” Shaking her head, Lin laughed slightly, “but I can’t read him so I’m probably going mad.”

Echoing Lin’s movements, Helen walked to her backpack and grabbed it. “I…” She laughed, the tension broken. “I would dearly like to be around when you call Nikola that.”

“What, dearest, darlingest great great great grandpappy?” She grinned. “Never doing!”

“Why not? He’d adore it!” she replied as they started walking.

“Somehow, I think he’d adore dearest, darlingest Nikola coming from you over me every day of the week.” Grimacing, Lin plucked at her jeans. “Ugh, my bum’s wet. Yeah, yeah, I know, that’s what I get for sitting on the floor.”

They walked for a few minutes in a calm silence, listening to the nature all around them.

“Why is it only going to get harder?” Helen asked, remembering Lin’s words.

She huffed and hummed for a few moments. “Because of our familial bond, it’s going to be easier for me to communicate with you in general. Oh! It’s why my Welsh music didn’t work in the lab,” she said, as if the explanation only registered with her that moment. “Thunderbolt. It’s why I can talk to you telepathically. Even though there’s three generations between us, you’re still blood. Damn…”

“You were really looking forward to talking telepathically with Erika?”

“To someone who wasn’t related to me,” Lin clarified. “I liked the idea. Give her mental hugs when she’s not feeling happy.” She shrugged. “Well, that’s if I can stay in London with her and Declan…”

“Why not?”

Ducking her head, Lin replied, “I kinda just told my boss I was going to walk away from my work because I was angry at her.”

“Thought you were angry at your very old grandmother…”

“My _hen hen hen mamgu_ is also a very important woman in the abnormal world, and has many secrets that she can’t share at the drop of a hat.” Lin smiled. “I’m sorry I bugged out.” Helen nodded her head, accepting the unsaid part of the apology.

They walked further, the terrain getting harder. “I think we’re getting closer.”

“I think so too,” Lin agreed. “All I know is that my headache is kinda calmer. Maybe they don’t need saving any longer.”


	7. Chapter 6: The Scorpions

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> When we last saw Nikola, he had left The Ship in a less than positive mood. This is his day since then.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I heavily debated with myself whether to make this two 3k+ chapters or just leave it as it is, when my brain did it's usual, 'Aaaah, stuff it!' thing. But here's the next chapter (and look, Henry's here! I've missed Henry.)
> 
> And as per, unbeta'd, so if you find any mistakes, let me know, otherwise I hope you enjoy! :D

Nikola was in complete agony. 

After leaving his note with Helen, he had gone back south, back to the drone testing centre. The one _rinascorpa reticuli_ he’d found led him to another, and another, until they were underground, and the floor was littered with their black and electric blue bodies. 

The size of Nikola’s palm, the _rinascorpa reticuli_ were usually royal blue in colour, with flashes of bright blue-white along the tail and stinger. The venom of this particular scorpion was the same strength as the Alacran Azul but, and this is what made them known as the electro-scorpion, their venom wasn’t really a toxin.

They injected pure, hot electricity.

Nikola had loved them from the moment he and Nigel had come across some in Mexico back in the mid-nineteen twenties. Back then, before wired electricity had reached everywhere, the little _rinascorpa_ lived happily in areas that had massive thunderstorms every year. Nikola had been hypnotised by these creatures and, by shooting out his own sparks, ensnared them with his own lightning.

And they loved him until they realised he wasn’t the warmest of people, literally. Then came the stingers. The one he held in his palm stung so quickly he almost didn’t see it.

He felt it though. Warmth zinged through him, almost at odds with his own electricity. Nigel had laughed like a drain watching Nikola hop around, wringing his hand, the scorpion - poor darling - hanging on for dear life. _“Give over Nik and put the poor thing down!”_

_“What do you think I’m trying to do?”_

He laughed sardonically. Nigel would have a field day with them now, watching how The Five had fallen to pieces, to come back again and again. Sure, they weren’t the same Five - Dr Protégé now stood for James, Wolfette watched them all as Nigel had (and she was leaving now, the first to go, like Nigel), Enrico gambolled where Nikola himself used to be and the most desired spot? Helen’s shield for her own sword?

“She’d sooner throw her shield now,” he said bitterly to the littered bodies. Blowing out a haughty sniff, then squatting close to the floor, he picked up the closest corpse. The pincers were smaller than he remembered, and the stinger? Something was different there too.

Rolling his eyes, he did what any sensible vampire would do. “ _Henri_ , bring up a picture of _rinsascorpa reticuli_ for me,” he murmured into his Farnsworth.

“Uh… You do realise I have my own work to be getting on with?” he asked, tapping away at his keyboard so many miles away.

Nikola glowered at the device. “Work I know you wouldn’t have started because Helen and I aren’t due back until two weeks from now and Miss Ex-FBI has given you all her brother’s old games. She’s not here, you can tell me.”

He almost laughed at the comical way Henry looked at him. “What? Where’s the doc?”

Nikola shrugged. “Not seen her since last night, but I have seen these.” He held up the dead electro-scorpion. “Why is it different?”

“You tell me Tesla, you’re the one with it,” Henry muttered, looking away from his Farnsworth.

“Henry…” Nikola sighed. “These abnormals aren’t indigenous to this area. And they’re smaller in places. There’s something not right about them.”

“How would you know?” Henry asked suspiciously.

“Who do you think helped Magnus bring in her contingent back in thirty one? These are literal electric creatures, and…” Nikola held the Farnsworth closer. “I need something good right now.”

“Bad trip?” Henry asked, finally giving in and looking up the information Nikola asked for.

Nikola shrugged. “Would’ve been blissful if we didn’t come to Wales, but I hate being ignorant.”

“... Ok? I’m just gonna hold up my Fossla to the screen now--”

“We’re calling them Farnsworth now,” Tesla told him.

“Oh thank god,” Henry muttered. “Way better name. Anyway, _rinascorpa reticuli_ aka rina scorpions, aka electro-scorpions, aka Nikola’s Favourites. Cool, your favourite abnormal isn't you?”

Nikola smirked. “Just…”

“I know. Uh… Hold it up again… The scorpion,” Henry corrected, when Nikola held up the Farnsworth.

“Now, is it me, or are these claws smaller, Wolfgang?”

Henry nodded. “And the stinger too… The body looks bigger though? What’s wrong with Sparky?”

“Sparky’s dead. I followed his brother Andre-Marie from the entrance of the cave. Do you know how many natural cave systems I’ve been in? This is not one of Mother Nature’s fissures.”

“Who’d make a cave in Wales though?”

Nikola nodded.

“Oh hey, if you see the doc, can you--” Nikola closed the Farnsworth, a bit disheartened he hadn’t asked after his favourite werewolf, but more concerned about the dead scorpions littering the floor. And not wanting to think about Helen.

“Right Andre-Marie, where are you?” he murmured, missing his own electricity. Had he his lightning, he’d have brought forth the energy and called any rina scorpion to him. As it was, he had nothing on him that could act as a lure, not even his own self. Looking at the floor, scanning with his eyes and stepping carefully over the small, scorpion corpses, he waited for movement.

Finally, his patience paid off. To the right, about ten feet away, one was skittering away from him, toward a wall. Replete in it’s royal blue colours, the blue-white stinger as standard, Nikola was happy to notice that this one seemed a bit bigger. Not big enough to be a huge difference, but maybe this one had had more to eat, or didn’t have to fight so much for its food.

“Maybe this one knows all it’s family,” Nikola muttered, hopping from footstep to footstep. Any other abnormal and he would’ve marched through their corpses like a steamroller, but these were the scorpion version of him, in a way. They loved electricity as much as (maybe even more than) he did, reveling in its movement as it tried to find the earth, and deserved his respect. “Wonder what killed them all?” Nikola was no pathologist, but even he could see that none of the bodies looked squashed or broken in any way. It was almost as if they’d all decided to just keel over and die.

It didn’t make any sense. Why would any animal, sentient or not, willingly give up the ability to hurl electricity at someone? It just didn’t add up in Nikola’s book. Following Andre-Marie, he went deeper into the cave system, watching for any sign of life.

\--

“This wasn’t what I meant when I said take me to your leader, Andre-Marie,” Nikola muttered as he took in the scene before him. In front of him were hundreds of his favourite abnormals, walking on a pliant membrane. He knew without touching it that it would feel like flesh, but cooler, running more at his temperature than an average human’s. “You do prefer warmer than cooler,” he told them, as if they understood the first thing he said. A small number of them were stinging the floor.

He looked around. Opposite him was another door, about a hundred yards away. Along one wall, to his left, was rockface, dark and looming, whilst on his right was rockface with lights, dotted along the surface to illuminate the room. The metal grating he was walking on veered to the right. Obviously this was a man made structure, purpose built, but for what purpose Nikola couldn’t fathom. Following the grating for now, he walked part of the room, watching all the electro-scorpions chittering and skittering with each other. Part way along the walkway, he came to a recess in the wall. In it was a small desk, a light and (the thing that made Nikola’s heart sing) a computer. Sitting down at it, he booted it up.

His heart stopped singing. They hadn’t had much to do with them, but even he knew how utterly annoying The Queen’s Horses were. “Imbeciles,” he muttered, almost insulted that they hadn’t even password protected the terminal. Almost.

Working as quickly as the computer would allow him, he read all the information available to him. The Queen’s Horses were trying to find out if the electricity generated by the _rinascorpa reticuli_ could be harnessed to possibly power any outstations they had in inhospitable places. Nikola sneered. He could tell the person running the experiment had no idea about abnormals. They spoke of strengthening the electricity in their stinger, forgetting the reason they had it in the first place.

The prey for rina scorpions were often times much larger than the scorpions themselves. They didn’t feast on humans, but cats? Dogs? If they were really lucky, they’d like a lamb or two.

Those scorpions wouldn’t even be able to take down one kitten if working alone. These ones? The Queen’s Horses hadn’t even tried breeding their nature out of them. They’d be so much more dangerous now. The sneer still present, Nikola sent a small thanks to the Lord for the small flash drive he’d palmed from Henry’s desk a few days previously. (He was going to fill it with as many notes on his projects whilst they were on the surface, but time and adventures had conspired against him.)

Walking back to the main chamber, he watched them. There was something still not right about them. Not their size, or their colour, but them in general. There were so many that--

So many. 

There should never be this many rina scorpions in one place. The sting from that many could kill a person. Kill an army of people. He grimaced. Or power a place. And then there was their energy field; it would be detrimental to just about everyone, affecting the alpha waves and making everyone cranky and ill.

Sighing, he knew what he had to do.

Let it never be said that Nikola Tesla, resident drama queen, was not above saving those below him. Especially those who played with electricity with the ease he used to. But how to get them to follow him?

Heart sinking, he stepped off the grating, onto the pliant membrane beneath. Stepping purposefully, he moved to the middle of the room, to stand solidly in the sea of scorpions. “I need to get you all out of here,” he muttered. “They’re killing you here, having you all in one cold place.”

He was left alone for a few minutes, a massive predator in a sea of tiny ones, but they soon came to him, chittering softly as they crawled up his legs. Taking the initiative, Nikola scooped one into his hand. As bright blue as he remembered, the white-blue flashes were almost brighter than they should’ve been.

The first sting hurt as badly as he remembered all those years ago, if not worse. The one in his hand had decided he wasn’t warm enough. It stung again, it’s brethren joining in as they realised something cold was in their midst. With each successive sting, the hurt grew, until he was crawling towards the door, contorting as he tried to handle their stings.

The scream torn from his lungs was unexpected, as was collapsing onto the membrane. 

He was right, it was as cool as him.

Breathing harshly through his nose, he lowered his mental barriers. _Lin? Lin! Scorpions!_

\--

_Earlier..._

There was a rent in the fence, big enough for a person to squeeze through. Across from the fence, a thirty seconds run away, was a big, metal door in the rock face. Looking at each other, Helen and Lin nodded, deciding it would be much better to go in here than through the front door.

“At least there aren’t any guards around,” Lin uttered, as she squeezed herself through the fence.

“Are you sure?” Helen asked, throwing her bag over to the younger woman.

“Would I have squeezed through a chain link fence if there was?” she asked, grinning.

Helen nodded, before squeezing through herself. Backpacks back on, they made quick work of the distance between them and the door, and almost cheered when they realised the door was only locked with a key.

“I assume you can pick a lock, as you’re the awesome, stupendous Helen Magnus?” Lin asked, cheekily.

“Pick a lock?” Helen quirked an eyebrow. “Oh, you have no idea.” Moving so Lin couldn’t see what she was doing, Helen made quick work of the door, and soon enough it opened for them.

“ _Curwch, ac fe agorir i chi_?” Lin asked as they closed the door behind them. “I’m so learning how to do that...” They stepped forward, torches in hand as it was dark. They were walking in silence when the crunching noise started. Both looked down, the lights in their hands illuminating the floor.

“Oh my goodness!” Helen gasped. All around them, like sweet wrappers tossed aside by messy children, lay thousands of dead _rinascorpa reticuli_. Kneeling down, she took one in hand, examining it in the torchlight. “It’s a rina scorpion. Nikola was right to let me know. Look at how small it’s pincers are. It’s almost as if they’ve been bred to have smaller defensive capabilities.”

“Do you think their sting is stronger now?” Lin asked, kneeling next to her.

Helen shook her head. “No way to find out unless I see a living example. What have they been doing to them?” She put the corpse down. “Dear God,” she breathed, taking in the full extent of the room they had entered. It was the size of a rugby pitch, with a high arching ceiling that, had Helen and Lin not had torches, would be lost to the pervading darkness.

Their door was not the only one, but was the only accessible one, if the walls were anything to go by, Rocks had tumbled down in places. To Lin’s untrained eyes they must have looked like an unfortunate accident. Helen, however, knew the rocks hadn’t just landed like that. They had been landscaped there, to hide something. “Left or right?” she asked.

“Left?” Lin answered, before closing her eyes and groaning slightly. “No, wait, right. That voice that calls to me, it isn’t the Phantom but it's coming from that direction.” She opened her eyes and smiled at Helen. “I listen to too much music.”

“Quite,” she replied, walking in the direction Lin had chosen. The bodies of the scorpions didn’t lessen but every now and then she’d see one or two skittering across her beam of light. “Is the voice getting stronger?”

Lin nodded. “Yes. It’s really starting to hurt me, if I’m honest.”

Helen smiled sympathetically. “Hopefully they’ll stop yelling when we get there.”

\--

_Lin? Lin! Scorpions!_

\--

“Tesla!”

“What about him?” Helen asked, but Lin was already haring off down the corridor, squashing the corpses that Helen herself tried to avoid.

“It is him! He’s here!” she yelled back. “He’s in pain!”

“He’s a vampire. He--”

“Is screaming in my head about scorpions!” Lin called. 

Helen’s heart constricted sharply. She remembered nineteen thirty one, when they brought a dozen of them to her Old City Sanctuary, newly formed. They’d been rescued from a person Helen would come to call a red list seller (had she not been so worried she’d have chuckled at the memory - a time before she had a name for everything), but only because Nikola had stowed them all on his body. The welts on his chest almost brought tears to her eyes, until Nigel dispelled the tension. _“He always did attract the ones that hurt him most.”_

She still wasn’t one hundred percent sure that wasn’t a dig at her, but at the time she just watched as each red circle faded within an hour of the scorpions making a home in their new habitat. As soon as that last circle faded, he had awoken on the gurney, asking if anyone had a delicate white because he had a terrible thirst.

His electricity had been… vigorous that evening, Helen blushed.

“I really don’t need to know about my great great great grandparents sex lives right now!” Lin threw over her shoulder.

“Don’t listen to my thoughts and you won’t find out anything!” Helen replied, catching up to her.

“Difficult to ignore when I have one voice yelling for me, and another yelling for the first voice. Are you sure neither of you are telepaths?”

“Why?”

Lin shrugged, a difficult action as she kept running. “He’s calming down,” she replied.

“The electricity is putting him into shock, he could collapse at any moment!” Helen explained, wide eyed. Lin’s echoed hers comically, and together they reached the door. Not wasting any time, Helen took out her gun and shot around the door knob.

“How did you know that would work?” Lin asked, in awe, before turning her head from the mental noise coming from the room.

“Science. Earphones in, Llinos. He’s going to be in a lot of pain. Ready?” Watching as the younger woman followed her instructions, she nodded and Helen kicked the door, swinging it open and away from her.

In the middle of the room was a lump, screaming. Helen squeezed her trigger, aiming to just behind the form she knew would be Nikola. The scorpions skittered away from the noise, moving off Nikola at speed, allowing Helen to run to him, to reach him safely.

Blindly, she groped for his pulse. There, faster than she would have liked, but there for her to feel, to calm herself just slightly. “Come on Niko,” she muttered, “get up off the floor,” she commanded, hooking her arm under his to drag him forwards, before screaming herself.

The scorpions were stinging her, their pincers making holes in her shirt before their tails attacked. Their electricity was nothing like she had expected. Nikola’s had been gentle, teasing, caressing, bringing forward pants and gasps and that delightful boneless sensation. The scorpions flew past boneless and went straight to senseless. Each sting numbed from the point of entry, the electricity out to kill as it shot along her nerves, cancelling any sensation she might have felt from anything else.

She fell to her knees as she tried to drag herself and Nikola towards Lin, who valiantly tried aiming her stunner into the crowd to disperse them. _No good!_ Helen tried to yell. _Attracted to the electricity!_ Either Lin was ignoring her or couldn’t hear her, because she just kept shooting, the scorpions moving like the sea toward each shot of energy.

Collapsed on the floor, Helen couldn’t move as the _rinascorpa_ swarmed over her. They’d stopped their stinging, blessed, blessed relief, but they had her surrounded, had her covered. She couldn’t move.

The last thing she saw, as she came up off the floor and into the air in his arms, was Nikola’s worried, blue eyes.

\--

_That won’t do you any good Linnet. They’re attracted to the electricity._

“At least I can do something if I shoot them,” she yelled, having not taken her headphones out of her ears.

“Can’t you shoot away from us then!” Nikola growled, wincing at every step. They were still stinging him, and each hit ached but… _Stop shooting!_

“I’m scared!” she yelled.

Frustrated, his arms full of unconscious, unresponsive Helen, he turned his back to Lin for a moment. Not knowing why he did it, he took one hand off her body and held it in front of him. A flash of lightning shot from him, arcing toward the door he had used only a short while ago. Triumphant, he walked backwards, both arms around Helen, stings to his legs dulling. Every half dozen steps, he’d shoot another bolt of lightning, watching as the scorpions skittered toward the newly formed pools of energy.

“At least you’ve stopped shooting,” he muttered, watching the slightly manic gleam in Lin’s eyes dull.

Her mouth worked soundlessly as she looked out at the sea of scorpions, moving about to each patch of electricity in a haze of instinctual kineticism. Her big, blue eyes stared unblinkingly, before turning to look at him. “G-- g--”

Nikola quirked an eyebrow and smirked. “Good to know you’re still verbal.”

She blinked, shook her head, and stepped back to give him space. “Your vampire is showing,” she told him, scrunching up her nose. “And I don’t get why people think that’s hot.”

Nikola canted his head, how he normally did to calm his sanguine nature, but, “Something’s wrong.” He shifted Helen in his arms. “I can’t…”

“Maybe there’s too much electricity from the scorpions?” she offered, glancing worriedly at Helen. “Or too much adrenaline in your system? He-- Ma--” Lin’s face scrunched up as she tried to find the words. “Magnus said you left last night in a huff.”

“I would hardly call it a huff,” he muttered to Helen’s hair.

“Ok, but I would,” Lin explained. “Maybe it’s from that too. Your fight or flight thing.”

Sneering, he looked at her with his dark, red rimmed eyes. “Thing?”

Lin shrugged and shook her head dismissively. “I only just passed Biol. Prefered Physics.” A metaphorical lightbulb turned on above her head. “Have you any mantra things to help calm you? Or a song or something?”

He growled. “Maybe if we could leave here while there’s still a chance to save Helen?” he suggested, the words now sounding vampiric to his own ears since the scorpions had stopped attacking.

Nodding, Lin opened the door, and like Olympic sprinters, they ran.

\--

“De-- Declan?” Lin called on Helen’s Farnsworth (which had tumbled to the floor in their escape from scorpion hell). “Erika!”

“Lin? What’s wrong?” Erika asked, concern written on her features.

“It’s Magnus! She’s been stung by the _rinascorpa reticuli_. Like, so many times.”

“How many is, ‘like so many’?” Erika asked, no hint of sarcasm as she echoed Lin’s words.

“Seventy three times,” Nikola replied. “Where are you and MacRae?”

“Still at Penbryn, but just left the sirens cave system.”

“If they leave now, they can be here in just under twenty minutes,” Lin told Nikola, strapping her backpack on tighter.

“We need five minutes to get back to truck,” Erika told them.

“We’ll start walking,” Lin replied. “Might help Drac here chill the fuck out.”

He sneered. “The walk will do Xavier here some good too. Explain what the hell happened.”

Lin rolled her eyes. “I have so much I have to tell you later Eri, it’s not even funny. Keep in contact, let us know when--”

“We’re nearby? We will.” Erika smiled. “Stay safe.” The screen went black.

Lin sighed, looked down at the path she and Helen had taken only half an hour earlier, then up the path towards the road she didn’t really want to walk to.

_We’ll get you back, Helen, don’t do anything stupid now…_

“She was really worried about you,” Lin told him, starting the trek up the hill. “Wouldn’t say it but all her thoughts were you.”

“I thought you listened to music to keep people out?” Nikola asked, not looking at her fully, but glancing every now and then.

Shrugging, she huffed in a manner more reminiscent to a teenager than a woman in her mid-twenties. “No fucking good when it’s my great great great grandmother.” She didn’t look at him, not wanting to see his reaction, glad she couldn’t really hear it either.

“Grea-- How?”

Lin stopped, and faced him. “You’re asking me how Helen Magnus is my great great great grandmother? Well, when an ageless doctor and an immortal vampire fall in love--”

“There was no falling,” he growled, still holding Helen as if she was spun glass.

“Bullshit.”

“I think I should know, I was there,” he told her, his vampire voice doing nothing to hide his anger.

“Yes, well I saw her memories. The clearest ones? They all had you. Your face, your smile, your--” She shuddered. “I learnt more than I needed to, let’s put it that way… Dirty monkeys.” Licking her teeth, thinking of how to say it, Lin looked at him. “You’re doing it now.”

He curled Helen closer to him. “I’m doing nothing.”

“You’re looking at her as if she hung the moon then destroyed it with a bazooka.”

“She--”

“Is the mother to your child you never met, I get it. She tried to tell you you were a father more times than sense, but events conspired against her. Yes, she could have told you there and then, but she had the timeline to worry about. She knew you knew her until at least World War Two, and had never mentioned a child. She knew nothing of abnormals in Tresaith her first time around. She had to protect the timeline.”

“At the cost of our child?” he yelled, the vampire tonality to his voice harder than ever after the gradual softening as they had walked.

“But did he die?” Lin asked, quirking her eyebrow. Whilst waiting for his answer she began walking back toward Aberporth itself. “He didn’t. He had a nice, super long life. He married, had children, saw them walk the aisle, saw his grandchildren, his great grandchildren. He travelled when he wanted to, which wasn’t often.” Lin looked at Nikola’s face. “He signed up at the beginning of World War Two, did his training. They saw he had an ounce of common sense about him so they sent him to Bletchley Park.”

Nikola swallowed. “Code breaker?”

Lin shook her head. “I don’t know. He wouldn’t talk of it, said he wasn’t allowed. When that Cumberbatch film came out a few years ago, it made me think of him. It was a film about the Enigma Code,” she explained. “That isn’t important. He got transferred to Churchill’s office about three years in, did something major there.” She laughed mirthlessly. “There are so many redacted bits to his file that you could fit what could be said onto one page.”

Nikola’s face as he looked at Helen softened further, finally human again. “Do you know where he was on VE Day?”

Lin shook her head. “He’d say sometimes he was in the bunker, other times he was above ground in London somewhere. I dunno, I don’t think he was allowed to tell us, so he must have been somewhere cool. And believe me, I’ve been looking. I even trawled the Sanctuary files, but either the photos weren’t clear or he wasn’t where a Sanctuary staff member was at the time, so he’s a ghost.”

A car beeped behind them. Turning, Lin almost flipped them off until she recognised the woman behind the wheel. “ _Angen lifft_?” the woman asked after opening the window.

“ _Hari, ti’n seren_!” she yelled back. Turning to Nikola, she said, “You and Magnus sit in the back, I’ll sit in the front, and call Declan, tell him to meet us at Tresaith.” She opened the door. “This is Angharad by the way, my cousin.”

_Can she…?_

Lin shook her head, smiled mysteriously, and opened his door. “Get in.”

\--

Lin knew the bollocking from Declan would be intense. When she called Erika to explain that they’d been given a lift by Hari (“She’s my cousin, and she’s already agreed not to take us to the hospital, mostly because it’s too far away and she hasn’t the petrol…”), Declan had stayed suspiciously off screen. She could understand why. Helen Magnus was never the one to get hurt, yet here she was, unconscious, after pairing up with her.

“What the hell happened Llinos?” Declan almost yelled outside Helen’s room. “You let her get stung! What were you doing?”

“I was… Was...” She swallowed, and took a step back. She put her hands up, her already weakend breakers being battered by his swirling thoughts and emotions. “Please.”

“No. I need to know. What happened, Price?”

The use of her surname galvanised something in her. Taking a deep breath, she explained everything - how she had a mental call for help, how she and Helen had gone investigating, how they had found Nikola under a swarm of electro-scorpions, how Helen went running into them to save Nikola, how Nikola saved them all. “She just acting on Helen Magnus instinct,” Lin finished, lamely. “She saw Tesla in trouble so she jumped in to save him.”

“All the while you were on the walkway, shooting electricity at scorpions who love electricity?” Declan asked.

Lin nodded, cheeks flushing. “Not my finest moment. I just had to keep shooting and no-one could get through my panic.”

Declan put his hands on his hips and walked away a few steps. After a minute of silence, a groan, and a quick wipe of his face, he said, “We can’t have a panicking field agent.”

“No,” she whispered, knowing what was to come.

“You’re to stand down. No more going into the field until you get further training.” He shook his head. “I thought you’d be ok with Magnus.”

Lin shook her head again. “She and Tesla are as bad as each other.” Looking at Declan with watery eyes, she smiled weakly. “They’re both magnets for trouble.”

Declan laughed quietly. “I wouldn’t let him hear you call him a magnet.”

“I know,” she replied softly. “Erika told me he’s got a thing about it.” She went quiet again, leaning her back against the wall.

“Why did you panic so badly? I’ve seen you with the abnormals in London, you’re good with them.”

Lin shrugged, and slid down the wall to sit on the floor. “Why does anyone panic? I… I just… Magnus and I were finally talking again--”

“What do you mean, again?” Declan asked, sitting across the narrow corridor from her.

“I had to go to my _hen dad-cu_ ’s grave and we both discovered a common denominator thing and basically things got really heavy and for a mile and a half she didn’t talk to me. But she did after awhile… I actually had a bit of a fight with her.”

“And lived to tell the tale?”

Lin shrugged, looking at Declan but not seeing him. “That’s what you get when you fight with family, I guess. Anyways, I had her not talking to me, then both her and Tesla in my head and things just got… It got loud, and confusing and I… I couldn’t function. I couldn’t… Do what I think I can do.”

Declan raised an eyebrow. “Think you can do?”

She shrugged. “Pretty sure I can think logically, usually. Needed Tesla to tell me to stop shooting electricity so close to him, at the scorpions who like electricity. And instead of being rational, and knowing there’s a time and place for everything, I tried to talk to Magnus about everything and ended up yelling.” Her elbows on her knees, she held her head in her hands, sighing despondently. “Why is she so cool?”

Declan shrugged. “Luck of the draw? We get back to the Sanctuary, we start really putting you through your paces.”

“Why haven’t you?” she asked, looking up. “Before now, I mean. Why haven’t you put me through my paces? I’ve been feeding abnormals and playing telepathic games, but apart from that… Why?”

Before Declan could answer, Erika came out of Magnus’ room. “How is she?”

Erika nodded as she sat next to Declan. “She's stable, but I don’t know how much longer she’ll be under…” Resting her head on Declan’s shoulder, she yawned gently. “He won’t let go of her hand.”

\--

“I know you know I’m angry,” he murmured, stroking her bangs off her forehead, “but you in a coma? It's not going to help.” Rubbing his thumb against her cool skin didn’t ease any of his tension. “You couldn’t tell me about h-- about Noah, I understand, but Helen? It wasn’t that I didn’t get to know him, it’s that you didn’t trust me enough to tell me. To tell me anything.”

A little shot of electricity zinged through his thumb, apologetic. He smirked, his head bowed. “I… Ok, I would’ve probably done something to disappoint you, but to take on all that?”

Another zing through his thumb.

“I’m glad you’re listening. No more time loops please? Or at least take me with you when you go? As much as I appreciate an older woman, I’d like as much time with you as possible.”

The shot of electricity through his hand felt like ten thousand needles all injecting him at once.

_Uhm… Tesla?_

He looked up, away from the door. “Come in.” His gaze went back to Helen’s pale face as Lin entered the room.

“How she doing?” she asked meekly from her spot by the door.

“Oh, you know, well enough for a two hundred and seventy four year old woman riddled with electro-scorpion stings.”

Lin bowed her head. “I’m--”

“Don’t,” he growled. “You didn’t make her run over to me.”

“I could have cleared her path though,” she argued, finally coming into the room properly. “I could have shot away from you, from her, from me. I could have set the stunner to overload and thrown it across the room. I could have been the one to… to…”

Nikola shook his head. “That’s hindsight, Linnet. Doesn’t fix anything.” His hand, the one that had been stroking Helen’s hair, now rubbed her arm. “Stop flitting. Either sit down or leave.”

Lin sat on the floor, against the bed, looking up at Nikola every now and then. He didn’t notice her eyes, but did feel her thoughts expanding in the silence.

_That won’t help her either._

_Helps me. Same way you touching her helps you._

_Maybe I’m helping her by touching her, had you thought of that -- Everyone thinks I’m using her. Always think that._

“I don’t,” she said. “Think that,” she explained.

“And how would you know?” _Barely seen us on a good day._

Lin touched his hand tiredly.

_\-- so cute resting her head on his shoulder like that -- does she smile like that at everyone who brings her tea -- “I can feel your heartbeat” -- cobbled streets -- breakfast in bed -- kisses bestowed -- bestowing kisses --_

The images and sensations whirled around his head, slowly dissipating when Lin finally took her hand away. “You both love each other it’s sickening. She just thinks she hides it better.” She shook her head. “She doesn’t, you just have to watch harder.”

Nikola blinked. “She is hiding it better then, if you have to look harder.”

Lin shook her head. “Whatever. She wouldn’t have jumped into a pile of rina scorpions for anyone else.”

“Did she tell you that, or is that your opinion?”

“My opinion from watching her memories of you. And her absolute panic when I told her it was you calling for help.”

A zing of electricity zipped through Nikola’s skin. Smiling sadly, he squeezed her wrist, warm under his hand.

“She’s go spare if she knew I told you that. I get the feeling she doesn’t let many people in.”

Chuckling darkly, Nikola shook his head. “No, your great great great grandmother isn’t known for her displays of affection.”

“But my great great great grandfather is, so she lets him get away with it,” Lin muttered, turning around to look at her. “Do you think she’ll wake up soon?”

Nikola shook his head. “I don’t know.” The zephyrs of electricity had slowed, but that could mean anything. “Did she sleep last night?”

Lin shrugged. “A little. She was sorta stressed when she came to breakfast, and yeah… Maybe she just needs a nap?” They both glanced worriedly at each other, before looking back at her.

\--

“Do you think she can hear us?” Lin asked, a little while later. Kneeling on the floor, next to the bed, she looked like she was saying her prayers, her elbows holding her up on the mattress.

“If these electric shocks are anything to go by,” Nikola muttered, still stroking Helen’s wrist.

“Have there been many?” she asked softly, not looking at him. Did she have more pink in her cheeks?

He shrugged. “A number of them? Some have been little shocks, some have been sharper... I haven’t really been counting, but something like forty six.”

“What were you doing?” she asked, glancing sideways at him.

He glanced back. “Nothing.”

Lin looked disbelievingly at him. “And I’m a monkey’s uncle. What were you doing, _Pops_?”

_Brushing away a few inconsequential tears._ “Nothing important. Talking to her…”

“Being all lovey dovey, smooshy wooshy you mean?”

Growling, Nikola bared his vampire fangs. _I’ve killed lesser beings for that sort of language._

Lin just laughed. “So that’s where my _hen mamgu_ got that from. Always thought her teeth were a trick of the light.”

The zaps were stronger. “Yes, yes,” he muttered distractedly to Helen’s prone form. “Tell me birdy, did she have any other vampire traits?”

She shook her head. “Although mam said her _hen_ Anti Mair used to move like the wind when she got angry. And her _hen_ Anti Maggie would shock people if they touched her without her permission.”

“Is that why you’re shocking me now, Doctor Magnus?” he whispered cheekily, his mouth close to her ear as his hand moved a strand of hair. The shock he received, dancing along his thumb, was just as irreverent as his tone.

Lin grinned. “They say Noah was the first to have electricity at home around here… If you ask Dewi, he might have some of the old videos of No’ being uncle Fester.” She scrunched up her nose, remembering sitting on her mam’s knee watching Noah. “He’d put a lightbulb in his mouth and turn it on. Think he turned the Christmas lights on like that one year.”

_**Knock knock** _

“It’s Erika,” she called through the door. “May we come in?”

Nodding his assent, Lin yelled that they could, and moved so she was sat on the floor again, facing the door with her back against the bed.

“Any change?” Declan asked, leaning against the nondescript table under the window.

“She keeps zapping Tesla,” Lin replied, grinning.

“Thank you, scion,” he muttered.

“Not a problem,” she answered, smiling up at him cheekily. “Otherwise,” she added, directing her speech back to Declan, “she’s still under… I can’t hear her, anyways.”

“We’ve been monitoring the sirens, and I’ve been in contact with some of our people in the area, yes we have people in the area,” he added, looking at Lin, “we should be able to move them back to London soon.”

“How soon?” Nikola asked, finally looking at Declan and drawing back slightly. In the eight years he’s vaguely known him, Nikola would’ve sworn the leader of the London Sanctuary hadn’t changed, but there he stood, slightly leaner, slightly greyer, eyes still glittering when he looked at Helen.

_Everyone looks at Helen like that…_

_But she only looks like that at you… and tea…_ Lin sent back, rubbing her knee distractedly.

“Four hours.”

Lin looked at her watch. “So about five-ish then?” She clapped her hands. “This calls for tea.”

“Not so fast Pricey, we still have to have a plan,” Declan told her, stopping her from getting up off the floor.

“Uh… I thought I was in stand down mode?” she asked, tilting her head to one side.

Declan shook his head. “With Magnus down we need all hands on deck.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Completely unrelated note, but I'd feel odd if I didn't mention it... Over on Tumblr, tryingthisfangirlthing is organising a Teslen flashfiction gift swap thing. Sign ups have just opened, and it's open to anyone. [Follow the link](https://tryingthisfangirlthing.tumblr.com/post/180918865850/teslen-flashfic-christmas-exchange) to find out more. :)


	8. Chapter 7: Going Home

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Declan has to find a way to sort out the mess, but why are the sirens so worried?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> We're getting closer to the end (like... three chapters? That includes the epilogue...), and as such, we're getting more action. And more Teslen (because that's why I wrote this - Teslen-y goodness)... And just generally more.
> 
> I hope you enjoy (and I might try to post another chapter before the New Year).
> 
> Unbeta'd, so any mistakes are mine (and please let me know if you catch any).

It was a very good plan, in Declan's opinion, but as with everything else that happened around them, the whole thing went to shit the moment the sun went down. Magnus still wasn't awake, and as such he had to use Lin in the field. He really didn't want to after the clusterfuck that had been that afternoon.

Tesla wasn't much better. He hadn't wanted to leave Magnus' side. Declan could understand this - she was Helen Magnus, the big kahuna, Tesla’s oldest, dearest… Declan didn’t want to finish that thought in relation to him; Tesla and Magnus’ relationship always bewildered him - but he made the vampire leave. Declan knew he would be much better utilised working off his energy fighting the half bird half woman abnormals currently hiding in Penbryn than holding Magnus’ hand dejectedly.

And as much as he hated it, he made Erika stay behind. "You have a daughter you have to be alive to see, and a boss that wouldn't mind you caring for her in this state," Declan argued, when Erika tried to swap places with Lin. "And, last I checked, you can't communicate telepathically with anything."

"Well, no, I can't, but--"

Declan stroked her cheek. "Please love, just stay here. Make sure Magnus is safe. With all indications that The Queen's Horses have been here, I don't want to leave anything to chance. Protect her."

"And who's going to protect you?" Erika asked softly, kissing his palm.

He shrugged, and smiled. "I've got Tesla... And Lin, if she doesn't panic."

"Hopefully she won't," Erika told him. "She knows you two can look after yourselves."

Declan shook his head. "This is the thing I don’t understand. Why did she get so worked up over Magnus?"

Erika laughed, a gentle tinkling noise that told him she meant no ill will. "You're honestly asking that? To me?" She sobered slightly, although her smile didn't really leave her face. "Lin had a bit of a crush on Helen. And now she doesn't, because..." She waggled her shoulders, and tilted her head to one side.

"Because she has a crush on Tesla?" Declan asked, confused.

"You are not that dense, Declan MacRae.” Erika sighed. “She doesn't have a crush any longer because Helen and Tesla are her great great great, possibly another great, grandparents."

"What?" Declan looked over his shoulder, sure someone like Jeremy Beedle was about to jump out at him, with a massive camera in his face, telling him it was all a joke. “I thought she was taking the piss.”

Erika nodded. "This is why Tesla and Helen argued last night. She didn't tell him about their child, so he went off into the night to sort out his thoughts."

"And why Lin panicked."

Erika nodded.

"Ok. I still don't like this, but if Lin can keep her hair on, we should be in with half a chance of saving all the sirens.”

“She’ll do you proud, Declan.” Erika smiled. “Now go, save the day.”

In the car, Lin sat in the back, silent. That unnerved Declan more than Tesla sitting shotgun, fiddling with the air vents.

“Stop doing that Tesla, it’s pissing Dekkers off,” Lin mumbled, poking Tesla’s shoulder. Declan was sure she was about to lose a finger.

“Stop talking for people, Linnet, and they won’t hide behind your honesty,” Tesla replied, splaying his fingers experimentally, stretching them every now and then. He arced a small bolt of white blue energy between his two pointer fingers, grinning inanely. “That’s something I have missed immensely,” he said, holding his hand up so Lin could see his playing.

“Please put that away,” Lin asked. “I don’t need reminding that you and Magnus use electric for kinky fun times.”

Declan nearly swerved off the road whilst Nikola growled viciously, turning back to Lin. “What the hell?”

Her face was a sight in the rear view, her cheeks bright red. “I’m sorry, I thought I was saying that telepathically.”

“You need to practice that more,” he grumbled.

“I would, if the one person in this car who can let me in would actually let me in,” she answered, poking him again.

“Ow?” he asked, eyes wide.

“If you didn’t make so much noise, I wouldn’t have to poke you to shut you up,” she told him matter of factly. “So shut up and let Declan get us there in one piece.”

Declan was already regretting this. But he carried on regardless, because he knew the sirens needed saving. Their leader, the one in the centre of the cuddle pile he and Erika discovered earlier, had a broken wing (or what appeared to be a broken wing, but they moved almost too quickly for the cameras to pick up their movements so what could have been a broken wing could easily have been a misshapen wing that wasn’t at all broken). She might very well need medical attention.

He just hoped that Lin could communicate with these abnormals as she did back home. They didn’t have a mermaid, like Magnus did, but they had empaths who had, in the past, directed Lin. _The process shouldn't be much different,_ he thought, forcing his eyes to stay on the road.

They parked Mitsy, and trooped down as one to the entrance of the cave system. There stood Tony, with Ann, Julie, Katie and Marcus, his trusted posse of abnormal catchers around him, tranquiliser guns in hand, everyone dressed in black uniforms. Declan nodded to them. They knew the routine. They’d go in, tranquilise as many as possible, and leave the last few to Declan.

He could feel the unease rolling off Lin like waves along the beach. “Do they really need to shoot all of them?” she asked quietly. “Can’t someone talk to them?”

Declan shook his head, as did Nikola. “Gregory Magnus, your great great great great grandfather, had a saying. You could teach a lion to speak but all you’d have is a speaking lion. Great swathes of abnormals don’t think the way we do. We might think we’re telling them everything is safe, but our safe and their safe?”

Lin nodded. “Ok, I get it. Humans and abnormals look at things differently. But surely they could see reason?”

“They’re half bird, half human. Their reason is different to ours. Different aspects are seen as important,” Declan explained.

“Also, you don’t want to reason with a siren. They give you the most tremendous headache if you disagree with them.” Tesla said this as he glanced dismissively at Tony’s gun.

“I thought that was banshees?” Lin asked, as they followed Tony and his team into the cave. Lin herself was carrying a massive stun gun that looked more akin to something Nerf would sell rather than an actual ray gun. Declan had a black handgun, a little light at the bottom to let him know he was shooting tranqs, whilst Tesla was strolling along in his three piece suit, grumbling slightly at the amount of sand in his shoes and socks.

“Hey Mac, any chance we could have some of them stay down in Pembroke with us?” Tony asked, before entering the largest room of the complex.

“You won’t be asking that when you see the size of them,” Declan replied, smiling.

He wasn’t wrong. Mere moments later, Tony’s voice filled the air. “Holy shit, what the fuck sorta size is that for a siren? Katie, Julie, stunners, first positions! Ann, Marcus, guns out behind them. Give them cover whilst they need to change anything.”

Tony and his team were knocked back almost instantly. Declan had a vague feeling that would happen, having seen the sirens speed, but didn’t want to mention the idea, or appear to be having second thoughts at having the retrieval team there. No, Declan needed Lin.

Lin was hiding in the computer room. “Sorry Declan, I need to get my music right before I can go in there,” she explained, holding up her phone and her headphones. “Can you give me like, two three minutes?”

Declan shrugged. “I suppose so. Tesla is out there waiting though.”

Lin nodded. “I get that. I just need to put on some music that I can use as a support, rather than as a shield.”

Walking back and forth between vampire and telepath did nothing for Declan’s mood. “Tell that linnet bird she better speed up her pre-game ritual or I’m going in without her,” Tesla growled, his vampire fangs and nails growing with each passing second.

“Tell that vampire I will be out as soon as I am ready,” she growled back, when Declan happened to be close to her.

“That vampire has a name.”

“Really? You're saying it like that's brand new information.”

“That’s it,” he roared. “Tesla, Price, front and centre, now!” Nothing happened for a few seconds, then Lin came running out, eyes wide and meek, Tesla strolling over when he saw her.

“Sorry boss man,” she said. “Got everything ready. Point me their way and I’ll do what I can.”

Declan sagged slightly. “If you can just neutralise their song, I’ll be happy.”

She nodded. “Pretty sure I can do something for you.” Popping in her headphones, she gave Declan the thumbs up.

Tesla prowled around slowly, his spiky hair accentuating his spiky teeth. “Well, let’s see who wins. Songbird or birdsong, any bets?”

Declan grinned. “Songbird, a fiver.”

“What use is five pounds to me?” Tesla asked, head canted to one side.

“Ok,” Declan agreed. “The last bottle of James Watson’s brandy, from the case he was given from Sir Arthur himself?”

“You hear that Linnet? Beat the sirens and I get a bottle of brandy!” Tesla yelled to be heard over her music in her headphones.

“Get him to throw in his signed copy of _Peter Rabbit_ and we’ve got a deal!” Lin yelled back, grinning at Declan. “No point betting alcohol around me.”

_Have you tried the brandy?_

_Yup. Would have been better had there been cherries in it._

_Cherry brandy? My own descendent and you want cherry brandy… Philistine._

Lin looked back at Tesla, and Declan could see a passing resemblance to Magnus in the way she rose her eyebrows at whatever Tesla had thought. “Anything wrong with that?” she asked, her hand on the door knob.

“Nothing at all,” he replied, and Declan suddenly felt very uncomfortable. Lin had already opened the door a crack and the song was trailing through it to his ears.

“Lin?”

“Shit, sorry boss. Tesla, shut up and help me out.” They went through the door. The sirens were up in the air, singing, lulling, enticing Declan to join them. Standing firm, Lin calmed her mind, and felt the line the sirens were drawing. They were using their own alpha waves to affect Declan’s, and they were winning.

_Stop trying to stop them._

She looked at Tesla, who stood watching them with his fathomless red rimmed eyes. Nodding, she tried creating a bubble of her thoughts around Declan’s, but he was still moving forward, or trying to had Nikola not been there.

Straining, Lin made a shield, and mentally placed it between Declan and the lead siren. That seemed to do the trick. His eyes, once glazed and hypnotised, returned to their usual alert brightness, and Lin found that a small shield like that wasn’t so hard to hold.

For the moment.

She hated to think what might happen if other people turned up again. She could barely look after Declan and herself. Praying, she hoped Tony and his team would be sensible and stay down.

“Can I just shout stop at them?” she yelled.

“I don’t know, can you?” Tesla yelled back.

“Argh, totally not what I meant!” She looked at the sirens, watching them protect the matriarch. Stepping forward - “Lin?” - she held her arms out to her sides, like a child playing an aeroplane, palms upwards, her eyes unblinking. With each step she felt worse, so ill at ease that she almost turned back, but she knew it wasn’t her feeling it. “Come on,” she cajoled, nearing the wounded matriarch, “lemme get closer. That’s it, there’s a good siren, let little Linnet bird have a look at your poor wing…” Her tone was soothing, how a human would talk to a hurt puppy. “Oh, ok, let’s see…” She stretched the wing and gulped. “I’m going to bring Declan over now. Be nice, don’t eat him.

“Declan, I need your help.”

Warily, he walked over, Tesla behind him. Carefully, standing next to Lin, he looked at the wing. It didn’t look too badly hurt, but, “We need to get them out of here.”

The squawking around them felt full of acquiescence and agreement. The matriarch turned her big brown eyes on Lin, and, unblinkingly, brought her hand, mottled with feathers, onto Lin’s freckled skin.

“Declan?” Lin said, her voice shaking, “we need to get back to London.”

\--

“Any change?” Declan asked as they trooped into Helen’s room, Nikola pushing past him to sit next to Helen’s prone form. Unworried about everyone around him, he took her pulse. A warm zing of electricity shot through his hand.

Erika shook her head. “How…?”

Declan sat against the table. “We have a family group of sirens about to be on their way to London, but we have a bigger problem. The matriarch gave Lin information in regards to the Sanctuary.”

Lin, collapsed next to Helen’s mattress, groaned. “The Queen’s Horses are gonna try to take over… Bastards.”

Nikola gave a cry of surprise, and tried to take his hand away, only for Helen to hold firm.

“When?” They all made various noises of shock but Helen just waved their yells away as she sat up. “When?”

Lin shook her head. “Their concept of time is banjaxed cause they sleep during the day. Could be tomorrow, could be next year.”

“Let’s assume closer than next year,” Declan said.

Helen nodded. “We need to get back to London.”

“Tony’s transporting the sirens,” Declan told them. “He’s asked that Lin be there.”

Lin nodded. “That’s cool. The sirens actually aren’t that scary…” She shrugged. “Ok, maybe because I’m a telepath, but I liked them.”

Erika shook her head and grinned. Helen and Declan just nodded back at her. “Declan, if you, Erika and I take a plane, we can be back in London by sunset--”

“No way Helen,” Nikola growled quietly from his perch next to her, his hand still firmly held by hers. “I’ve seen planes with you in them, and you’re due a crash.”

“Nikola! Now is not the time,” Helen told him, glaring daggers at him.

“Why don’t you and Tesla hitch a lift with Tony; Boss man and Eri can drive the car, and no-one crashes a plane?” Lin asked, getting onto her knees to face everyone, her lassitude dissipated.

“Because we don’t know when they’re going to strike and Tony is a shoddy driver,” Helen explained.

“So all four of you go back in Declan’s truck thing, go down to Carmarthen and stick to the motorway all the way home?” Lin looked at them all. “Why fly when, by the time the pilot has gone through all the pre-flight procedures, you could be in Carmarthen, sliding through the roundabouts getting onto the M4? And you can all plan what you’re going to do and…” She took in their faces, ranging from, ‘No, go on, tell us how to do our job,’ (Helen) to, ‘Tell us what you think, you might have some insight,’ (Erika). She threw her hands in the air. “It was just a suggestion.”

Helen and Declan had one of those eye and shoulder conversations the Heads of Houses tended to have around their underlings, with Nikola squeezing Helen’s hand and Erika and Lin watching in fascination.

“Alright, but I drive,” Helen announced.

“Cool! So, you four in Mitsi, me with Tony and the sirens?” Lin asked, to confirm.

Helen and Declan nodded. “We’ll meet in the Sanctuary’s main foyer at twenty-two hundred hours,” he confirmed.

Making the final arrangements (Lin was throwing her bag in Mitsi and taking Nikola’s Farnsworth; Helen wouldn’t be driving all the way, they would be stopping in Leigh Delamare), they all prepared to leave The Ship, ready for battle.

\--

“Helen, my magnetism is astounding, I know, but, and I never thought _I_ would say this, would you kindly let go of my hand?” Nikola asked once everyone had finally left Helen’s room (their room, though he hadn’t been there for much of their stay). They were still sat on her (their) bed, although she was under the covers.

“Believe me, Nikola, nothing would bring me greater joy than to let go, but I can’t,” Helen replied, tugging ineffectually at his hand.

“Not at all?” he asked, surprised.

“Would I say I couldn’t let go if I could?” she replied, tired and a bit grouchy.

“I don’t know, you might want to keep me close, by any means necessary,” he replied, quirking his eyebrow saucily.

“What happened to, _‘PS I’m still mad at you’_?” she asked, shoulders stiff.

Nikola stopped short, looking deep into her eyes, before looking away. “I can be mad, if you want me to.” A sigh. “I am, actually, still, a bit.” He looked down at their hands. “But we can’t change the past, even if I don’t agree with how you dealt with things, and…” He looked back at her, words failing. He shook his head, giving up.

She nodded. “I did make a hash of things. I was so worried about the timeline I--”

He kissed her forehead. “I don’t forgive you, not right now, but I can’t stay mad. We have much bigger problems.”

“Oh?”

He waggled his eyebrows. “We didn’t have hotel sex here, and I’m currently in the palm of your hand, ready for your every command.”

She shook her head, laughing and sighing. “Never change Nikola.” She tapped her other palm against his chest, bestowing him a small smile.

Resting his hand against hers, he kissed her forehead again. “Never,” he murmured, before catching her lips with his. “Been far too long,” he whispered against her smile, before kissing her again.

“Later, Niko,” she whispered, her words on hot breaths past his ear as he laved her pulse point where shoulder meets neck. One of her hands crept into his hair as the other pressed against his shoulder blade, her manicured nails digging into the material of his jacket. “We need… Need to… to…”

“Make love here on this very accessible bed?” he supplied, wrapping his hands around her waist, his thumbs brushing her lower ribs. “Work off some of this energy we both seem to have acquired?”

Her laugh was low and throaty as she tugged his head away from her neck. “Stop, you’re distracting me.”

Grinning, he licked his lips and sat back, almost laughing when Helen followed him, her hand still playing with the hair at the base of his head. “I thought I was distracting you?”

“You are,” she agreed, before her eyes darkened and she chewed her lower lip. “I need distracting.”

That was all he needed. Surging forward those few millimeters, he captured her lips again, kissing and nipping as if he’d never have the chance again. One hand in her hair, he pulled ever so gently to tilt her head back, the other on her lower back pushing her toward him, her arms resting on his shoulders for balance. Without surrendering to the need for air, she straddled his lap, fingernails scratching lightly down his scalp, hard down his back as his hands did the same, her body arching deliciously against his.

Kissing down her neck, licking that sweet spot again where neck met collarbone, he roughly brushed his thumb across her breast, marvelling as her nipple hardened further under his ministration. Bolder, he held it, resting the weight in his palm, smirking into the crook of her neck when she pushed against his hand.

“Nikola, I swear to God--”

The knock on the door was their proverbial bucket of icy water. “We’re heading down to the truck, leaving in five minutes,” Declan yelled.

Laughing, Helen kissed Nikola again, not moving from his lap. “We better make ourselves presentable.”

He shrugged, leaning back slightly and thrusting his hips minutely against her, watching the flush of arousal flash across her cheeks. “If you say so. I must say, I already miss your hand stuck in mine.”

Looking down at her hands, then back at his face, she shrugged. "I must have needed that distraction." He waggled his eyebrows, earning him another laugh. “You will be the death of me, Tesla,” she told him, kissing him soundly, moving her hips away from his questing hands. “Come on, or Declan will be listening to Heart FM all the way back to London.”

Shuddering, Nikola did as he was told. Radio One had been bad enough.

\--

The drive back had been quiet, everyone on tenterhooks at the idea of their Sanctuary being attacked. They had discussed a few strategies at the beginning of the drive, but the closer they got to London, the quieter they became. Erika in the front kept them apprised of where Lin was as she and the sirens flew to the Sanctuary. Declan just kept his foot down as Helen and Nikola read in the back.

They stopped in Reading instead of Leigh Delamare, drank tea, ate a sandwich, and left within half an hour of arriving, Helen now behind the wheel.

Come twenty-two hundred hours, all four were in the foyer, waiting for their fifth.

“Why would The Queen’s Horses attack the Sanctuary? They know its protected by royal decree,” Helen asked, hands folded in front of her.

“Why would they test on sirens and _rinascorpa reticuli_ in West Wales?” Erika wondered aloud, stood next to Declan who had his arms folded.

“How did we get here before Lin?” was his question. “We left Tresaith as they were loading up, and we stopped at the services. They should be here. Erika--?”

“I’m already on it,” she told him as she fired up her Farnsworth, connecting to Nikola’s device. There was no reply. “I’ll call Henry, see if he knows anything.”

“Oh, hey Erika, did you--”

“Sorry Henry, in a rush. Can you get through to Tesla’s Farnsworth for me please?” she asked, smiling worriedly.

“Is he ok?”

She nodded, as he crossed the foyer to look over Erika’s shoulder. “Heinrich,” he greeted.

“T-Dog,” Henry replied, tapping keys on his keyboard. “There should be a reply. Where is it?”

“It’s with Lin,” Erika replied, “and she’s not picking up.”

“Could she be missing it, cause of the,” he wiggled his fingers up and down by his ears.

Erika and Nikola both shook their heads. “She tries to keep things in her line of sight if her music’s on loud,” Erika explained.

“It shouldn’t be on,” Helen told them. “She’s with Tony and the others to keep the sirens calm.”

“Sorry guys, but she’s not picking up.” He gave them a quirky half smile, shrugging slightly.

“Thank you Henry,” Helen called over the shoulders of Erika and Nikola as Erika closed the connection. The Farnsworth lit up again. Looking at each other, Erika shrugged at Nikola before pressing a button and watching the screen come to life.

“Linnet bird! Where have you been?” Nikola barked.

“Do vampires not go to the little vampire’s room?” she asked saucily. “I had to pee, or is that against the law now?”

“Where are you now?” Erika asked, frowning at Nikola.

“Basement level with Spaniel, Daze and the sirens. They’re giving them all a check up.” Lin looked off screen, then back to the others. “I can be up with you in five minutes. Any idea when the cavalry attack?”

Not knowing, Erika shook her head and closed the Farnsworth.

\--

They barely slept that night. Between them, Erika and Nikola (with a few calls to Henry) boosted the EM shield so much that it became an actual shield. (Nathaniel had tried to leave to fetch a few supplies from the twenty four hour Tesco down the street, but found he couldn’t walk past the statue of the cherubim.) Lin and Helen followed Declan’s orders - starting evacuation procedures for the non-sentient or non humanoid abnormals, recalling any and all Sanctuary staffers (Tony and his band of brothers were in for the long haul), locking down any unimportant areas. Lin also, between various tasks, hacked into the mainframe for The Queen’s Horses and Men, looking for anything that might help, or at least give them some idea when they’ll strike.

“Well…” The word was long, as if being exhaled rather than spoken.

Helen looked up from her work, her brow furrowing at Lin, who had just collapsed on the sofa across from her. “Well, what?”

“Well,” Lin said, eyes wide, “that explains the hard on the Eques have for Declan, and yes, I know, I just used a Latin name correctly.” She preened and Helen couldn’t help smiling just a bit. Lin scrunched up her nose, making her look younger, “I know, my cute is showing. Anyways, it looks like all The Queen’s Horses and all The Queen’s Men want Declan to put them together again.”

“What?” Helen baulked, getting up and walking around to behind Lin, to look over her shoulder at the laptop she held.

“See?” She pointed to the screen, where it said, in black and white, ten point Times New Roman, _Destruction of the Sanctuary Network to ensure Sergeant D. MacRae’s complete compliance._ “What if they can’t destroy the network? They won’t just give up on him…”

Helen shook her head, not taking her eyes off the report. “It’s either the network or his life.”

“His life? And they call me dramatic! Working for the government is never cool enough to give up your life!” Lin exclaimed loudly.

“But working in the Sanctuary is,” Declan explained quietly from the door.

“Bloody hell boss man,” Lin breathed, putting down her laptop on the cushions in front of her on the sofa. “There’s no way they’ll give in, or give you up.”

“I’m not going to work for them,” he told them stubbornly, walking to his desk.

“Seriously? But… they’ll kill you if you don’t!”

He shrugged, and smiled, sitting down in his desk chair, rotating it a smidge. “I’m not going to them.”

“But can’t the Queen herself make you join?”

“It’s in the decree, which, by its age and the lack of foresight on behalf of the UN, supersedes the UN’s decision,” Helen explained, shaking her head behind Lin. “The Sanctuary in Britain works because it has full autonomy. No-one, from the lowliest MP to to the reigning monarch, can force a Sanctuary member out.” She sighed wistfully. “I am so very glad James added that caveat with Robert.” Glancing at Lin’s confused countenance, Helen explained. “Gascoyne-Cecil…? Lord Salisbury?”

Lin shook her head, her eyes starting to hurt from looking at Helen in her peripheral vision. “Lord…?”

Helen huffed. “What do they teach you at school?” 

“He was Prime Minister when Edward VII was king,” Declan explained, taking pity on Lin.

She shrugged. “Didn’t take History past year nine. Would’ve been stuck learning about World War II and not much else,” she explained.

“Everything my father and I worked for needed protection,” Helen continued, having shaken her head at Lin’s confession.

He nodded. “And Doctor Watson explained how you had been especially eager to keep the Sanctuary an actual Sanctuary for all, not just for abnormals.”

Helen nodded. “It had to be. Or at least, my original had to be. We needed this place to always be a safe haven, not just for those who need it as a home, but those who live here willingly, to help those less fortunate.”

“Is that why your Sanctuary in Old City was an abandoned cathedral?” Nikola asked, walking in through the open door.

Helen shrugged, and smiled, rolling her eyes. “What can I say, I have the touch when it comes to real estate. And that was a diamond in the rough.”

“So, I think what we can take from this is that Declan isn’t going to become a stooge to the Queen, Helen won’t let him, and Tesla hasn’t brought me wine so I must steal his,” Lin explained, reaching for the unguarded glass.

Nikola hissed, his pointer finger outstretched, tiny tines of lightning coursing around it. “Touch it and it will be the last thing you ever reach for,” he threatened, just dark enough to unnerve her.

“Wow, ok, I was just…” She held her hands up. “It’s cool _myn_ , be cool.” She looked around. “I’m going to get a drink. Anyone want anything from the kitchen whilst I’m up?” Everyone shook their heads. “Ok, when I get back I’ll try trawling through their schedules. There might be something there.”

“Monday morning, attack the London Sanctuary. Monday afternoon, nap?” Nikola asked as Lin stood up.

She grinned, the previous _tete-a-tete_ forgotten. “You may mock me, Mr Tesla, but the amount of shit I can find from one person’s calendar in amazing. Hell, I even know when Declan’s mum’s birthday is, or when Daisy has her next check up with a dentist. Calendars are cool.”

“She shouldn't be here when the fighting starts,” Declan muttered a few minutes later, sitting in the spot Lin had vacated. Helen and Nikola sat across from him, drinks in hand. “None of them should...”

Helen and Nikola shared a look before she asked, “Why? She’s made her choice.”

Declan’s face betrayed nothing on how he felt. “I told her to stand down in Wales, and she’s not done any training recently… Do you remember Clara?”

“Griffin’s granddaughter?” Nikola confirmed, nodding.

“That’s the one. She didn’t have to stay, but she did, and she died.” Declan rubbed his face. “She was one of the first casualties here with me as Head of House.”

“Declan, it’s not going to help anyone thinking like that,” Helen told him. “Lin has to stay, you’ve heard the way she talks. You should utilise her in the best possible way.” She looked back at Nikola. “You should be using all of us in the best possible way. Me included.”

He shook his head. “I can’t do that Magnus, they think you’re dead. I’m not blowing that cover.”

She shrugged. “What better way to confuse an army than to show them the face of their dead enemy?” She furrowed her brow. “You’re usually much more decisive than this. What’s the real problem?”

His eyes flicked between Helen and Nikola, before looking back at his own hands. “Erika.”

“Alice,” Nikola breathed, understanding.

Declan nodded. “I grew up with one parent. Alice shouldn’t have to go through that.”

“You’re assuming everyone is going to get hurt, or killed. Everyone knows their strengths, Declan.” Her voice was soft, and reassuring.

“And what boss lady won’t tell you is that we’re too stubborn to leave,” Lin explained as she walked back in, can of pop in her hand, Erika following, carrying a plate of cake. “She was stress baking, so I’ve brought her with me,” she explained, tilting her head at the plate Erika was carrying. “And we’re not leaving. This is home,” she told them, shooting daggers at Declan for sitting in her spot before grabbing her laptop and sitting where it had been.

Erika sat the other side of Declan. “And if we won’t fight for you, who will?” she added, putting her hand on Declan’s wrist. His pulse fluttered under her fingertips.

Lin sipped at her drink, before saying, “So can we all stop being Debbie Downers, eat this cake, drink our drinks then plan our victory party? My happy high is taking a proper nosedive around you lot.”

\--

Erika’s fingers intertwined with his had a calming effect on Declan he never fully realised. He wasn’t sure if it was because of her soft skin, or the quiet confidence in her grasp, or just how calm she appeared, but it soothed his nerves as they walked the halls of his home (soon would be their home). Over the crackle of the radio came Daisy’s voice. “All the residents who couldn’t be evacuated are all safely locked in the lower levels with Tony and the others. Nathaniel and I are with the residents in the SHU… Declan…”

He nodded, although Daisy on the other end of the walkie talkie couldn’t see the action. “I know Daisy. You and Nate keep your heads down. Half hour updates, ok?” The connection quietened.

“I’d feel better if --” Declan’s phone beeped, interrupting Erika’s sentence.

_[Tomorrow.]_

_[Told you calendars rule.]_

“I wonder how they’ll spin it,” she muttered, after Declan read the messages aloud.

“Probably a terror attack. ‘Armed forces stormed a building today in London, where suspected armed terrorists planned an attack on Downing Street.’ Or something equally as asinine.” Declan shook his head. “Gas leak. Suspected case of mutated anthrax. Bees.”

“Bees?” Erika asked, laughing.

Declan shrugged. “Any story will do for a cover up. And that’s what this will be. But, we have a timeline.”

Erika stopped, tugging his hand to make him face her. “And tomorrow we go to war for your honour.”

He kissed her forehead. “Not my honour.”

“Oh?” she asked, looking into his eyes.

Declan shook his head. “Doesn’t matter,” he murmured, kissing her gently, before they carried on walking.


	9. Chapter 8: Calm Before The Storm

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Preparations are made, as is an apology and a few meals, before The Queen's Horses attack.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Oh my goodness, another update? What's come-- yeah, yeah, Christmas time means I have a bit of free time on my hands (not much though between visiting family, visiting the hospital, and just doing general grown up, mama things), so I could vaguely tidy this chapter up.
> 
> Again, any problems/mistakes you catch, lemme know so I can fix them (and thank you FabledShadow for the catch last chapter - having fresh eyes on something always helps).
> 
> And, as usual, I hope you enjoy. :)

Helen stared up at the canopy of the four poster bed, counting. She’d counted the folds in the curtains hanging by the windows, the primrose flowers printed on the bedspread, the filigree curls around the mirrors, but nothing was calming her mind.

“I can hear you thinking,” Nikola mumbled, rolling over and slinging his arm over her hips, moving closer to her. “It’s very distracting.”

“I’m sorry.”

He kissed her shoulder, his fingers tracing tiny patterns on the skin of her hip bone. In her tossing and turning, her pyjamas had twisted and shifted, and his hand felt cool against her, his fingerprints on her hip echoing his lips. “Wolfette and MacRae are --”

“No,” she interrupted, smiling awkwardly and sadly at the canopy. “I mean… I’m sorry abo… about not telling you sooner… About Noah.”

The patterns stopped, but a gentle thumb stroke (Helen would swear it felt possessive) took its place. “Oh.”

She moved her head to look at him in the cool, morning light filtered by the heavy net curtains. “I should have told you, once we were in the Hollow Earth Sanctuary,” she whispered, not wanting to verbalise her thoughts but knowing she had to. In the quiet of the room, so quiet they could hear the morning traffic three floors down and on the other side of the building, he kissed her shoulder again, encouraging her with just a glance of his cornflower blue eyes. “I…” She sighed, and turned fully to face him, resting her head on her hand, her elbow on her pillow. “It was easier not to say anything during the loop and… I kept not saying anything.” Blinking, trying desperately not to clam up at her own words, she rubbed her forehead with her free hand. “I’m sorry.”

“I know.” His hand on her hip came up to play with her hair as he mirrored her position. Minutes passed as he watched his fingers tangle in her flattened curls, Helen watching him. “I don’t like it, but we can’t change it, unless you have another time machine on you.” She shook her head, he smirked and copied her. “I won’t say no more secrets, because who would we be if we didn’t? But Helen…” He touched her cheek. “Is there anything else I need to know? Because…” His gaze returned to hers, eyes wide as he watched her. “Because I love you too much to have the rug pulled out from under me again.”

Swallowing, she blinked back the tears that threatened to escape. Nikola had said before he loved her, but the tone now, a whispered confession, almost undid her. The small smile that graced her lips was echoed in his own. She shook her head. “No, nothing… Except…”

“Except?” he asked, his eyebrow raised, worried.

She licked her lips before leaning over to kiss his gently. “Except that was so very sappy… And I’m not tired.” Her eyes glittered with barely contained mischief as she nibbled her lower lip, her whole attitude feigning coyness.

The hand playing with her hair went back to her hip, Nikola following along so they were flush together, shoulders to knees touching. “Whatever shall we do, in this glorious bed, to -- unf!”

Helen kissed him again, her hand curled up in his hair as she caressed each salacious word from his mouth. “You talk far too much.”

\--

The room wasn’t that large, but big enough that someone could move around freely. Mirrors lined one long wall, whilst various articles of weaponary were displayed on a shorter wall. Ignoring the feeling of dread that lined her stomach, Lin kicked off her shoes and socks, took out her headphones from her phone and pressed play. Bouncing from foot to foot, she stretched slightly before letting herself be pulled from side to side with her music. Turning, shimmying, jumping, she did everything she could to expunge herself of the sick feeling threatening to overtake her.

“ _No, I think it looked a little better on me,_ ” she sang, thumping the air with her fists. It wasn’t pretty dancing, or anything remotely choreographed, but the pressure on her lungs was easing, the panic in her head quieting, the floor almost warm underneath her bare feet.

Dancing for what felt like hours, she soon collapsed on the floor, curling up as the panic flooded her full force again, the floodgates opening. Tears streaked down her cheeks faster than rain in December, and with each drop she swirled in a miasma of despair, panic, and desperation for eyes that wouldn’t ache after this crying jag.

It was his physical body she sensed first, warm next to her, an hour later. Her body ached from falling asleep on the hardwood floor. She faced the mirrors, could see him sitting with one leg curled under him, the other bent with the knee pointing to the ceiling. She couldn’t see his face.

“I thought you’d be with Eri,” she whispered, voice hoarse from singing and crying.

Declan nodded. “We’re not connected at the hip.”

“Yet.” She pushed herself up, swinging her legs and using the momentum to sit facing him. “It’s gonna be awesome with her here though,” she said, the sleepiness dissolving quickly from her features. “She can actually read the handwritten notes Henry sends up with any tech. And she bakes! No more Tesco cakes for birthdays.”

Declan pouted in the most over the top fashion Lin had ever seen from him, hands outstretched. “If you didn’t like the cake…”

“Dude, the Value Added range Victoria sponge? That’s basically the, ‘We know it’s your birthday but we hate you,’ cake!” She was laughing quietly, back on usual turf.

He shrugged, sitting back. “We do have a staff of thirty three, and how many residents?”

She waved his comments away. “Yeah yeah. I know. Next time I’ll take time off and go eat cake with mam and dad.”

“Or your great great great grandparents?” he asked, a bit mischievous.

She groaned. “You would remind me of that now.” She shook her head. “I don’t know if they even like… cake…” she finished lamely, looking at her crossed legs.

Nodding, he coughed and said, “More importantly, can you sense anything amiss?”

Breathing deeply, Lin lowered her mental shields. There was Declan, grassy green, Erika a few levels below, light red, Magnus and Tesla, dark blue and electric blue swirling (she made a face, eww), the abnormals, Tony and his crew, Spaniel and Daze, then nothing. She shook her head. “Nope, everyone who should be here is here, with no uninvited guests.”

They sat, not speaking, listening to Lin’s phone - now playing piano music that was much calmer than the songs she had been dancing to earlier. “Hey boss man, how come we’ve got swords?” Lin finally asked, looking at the wall of weapons.

“Dr Watson. He liked weaponry, being...” He twirled his hand as if that explained everything.

“The real life Sherlock Holmes,” Lin said, nodding.

Declan got up off the floor, and walked to the wall. “He’d say he was, ‘proficient in many forms of combat,’ maybe not so much as Magnus or Druitt, he’d admit, but he could hold his own.” He took down a sabre, balancing it in his hand, feeling the weight of it. “He taught me how to fence, a foil first, sabre next.”

“Then you saw the big fuck off sword and wanted to play with it?” Lin asked cheekily.

Declan nodded, laughing a bit. “Something like that…”

_They were curled up in James’ bed, the fire burning in the grate, throwing golden dancing light into the room. “That sword in your office?”_

_“Yes?” James asked, kissing the top of Declan’s head._

_“Can you use it?” he asked, careful of the mechanisms keeping his Head of House alive._

_He grinned against the crown of his head. “What do you think?”_

Lin’s eyes were like saucers, her mind inundated by the warmth and adoration intrinsic to the memory Declan (perhaps unknowingly) shared. There was no embarrassment as he spoke though, so Lin assumed he had planned that. She was oddly touched, and smiled as he said, “He prefered a long sword, like the one in my office.” He put the fencing sword back in its place, then grasped a stockier blade by it’s hilt. “I like short swords.”

“Slash and hack, I can dig,” Lin replied, getting up and crossing the floor. “I used to like playing a dual wielder in computer games, but I’ve never really…” She nibbled her lower lip as she looked at her choices. “What is this?”

“That is a Gemini blade. It's usually a dual wield but we lost the sibling a few years ago.”

Carefully, she took the single blade down, feeling its weight, marveling at the ornate filigree crossguard. “I like this. It’s pretty.” She touched the actual blade’s edge, not moving her finger. “Sharp…” Looking at Declan, holding the weapon, the glint in her eye was hopeful. “If we get through this, I am so learning how to fight with this.”

He tilted his head, before walking back to the middle of the room. “Come on. I’ll show you a few things now. No time like the pre--”

“You’re not going to die, and we won’t let them kidnap you.” With each word, Lin bounced the pommel in the palm of her hand, Declan’s eyes following the blade. “So stop thinking that.” She looked down at her own hand, then smiled sheepishly. “Uhm… There were a few things you said I could be shown?” she added, smiling embarrassedly.

\--

They all regrouped at lunchtime, in the large dining room that Helen hated and Declan despised but was the only place that could hold all the Sanctuary staff and still have breathing room. A small group had worked together to make a large finger buffet of sandwiches and cold meats and cake, and everyone had enough to last them as they talked. Many had stopped by Erika and Lin, and almost everyone had stopped by Magnus’ table. Tesla was sat to one side of her, Declan on the other, and when they weren’t holding court, their heads were bowed together as they planned their next move.

“What’re you thinking?” Erika asked, following Lin’s line of sight.

“How the hell did someone like Tesla manage to get Helen Magnus to notice him? I mean, he’s cool and all, and I’m glad she took notice, but--” Lin stopped talking, watching Tesla touch Magnus’ shoulder, pouring her tea, then whispering something. Magnus’ eyes shifted to his, a quick smile and a nod, before looking over at Erika and Lin.

_We can hear you._

Lin’s eyes went wide as Magnus’ quirked an eyebrow and gave a minute half shrug. The younger woman grimaced, then smiled apologetically. “Sorry!” she mouthed, explaining to Erika with her hands what had happened.

“Tesla can hear just about anything though, so you might not have been telepathically communicating,” Erika suggested.

“Huh, maybe.” Lin picked at her food. “Damn, this tastes foul.”

“It’s the adrenaline,” Erika told her. “If you think it’s bad now, just wait until later.”

“Later?” Lin asked, her eyes bugging out. “Jeez, all I want to do is not feel completely sick.” She threw down her sandwich. “This sucks.”

Erika laughed. “Are you sure you’re not related to Henry?”

“Oh ha ha,” she replied. “I’m not related to Henry. We’re just both so cool that we sound alike.” She tore apart the bread of her remaining sandwich before throwing it onto her plate. “I’m going up to the lab. Don’t think anyone here would be too impressed if I started playing funeral hymns.”

“What’s wrong with Birdie?” Tesla asked as Erika sat next to Declan.

“She’s scared.” She smiled at Declan. “She really appreciated the lesson,” she whispered, nudging his shoulder with hers.

“Lesson?” Magnus asked, her interest piqued.

“I found her asleep in the old dance hall, music blaring. Gave her some time, and me a chance for a breather.” He shrugged. “She woke up a few minutes later, and asked about the weapon wall.”

“Is that still there?” Magnus asked, eyes bright.

Declan nodded. “And she’s very definitely your relation. The Gemini blade, with the blue hilt?” Magnus nodded. “Can you guess which she went for?”

Magnus nodded, smiling. “James gave me those. We were in Ouagadougou…”

\--

Lin stopped by her lab, picked up her laptop, before returning to the dance hall with the wall of weapons. Leaning against the opposite wall, she sat looking at each blade, each reflection, wondering what the story was for each sword as she fiddled with the alarm system. They might be going to war tomorrow, but she still had things to do today.

She was left alone to think on what Declan had told her about The Five, “Minus Nigel Griffin,” he’d said. 

_“There was something James, Doctor Watson, told me once, one evening long before the Cabal had taken Magnus’ daughter.” He straightened her arm and wrist, fingers deft as they worked._

_“Oh?” she asked, trying vainly to not bend her elbow again after having it maneuvered into place._

_He nodded, standing at ease and affecting an accent Lin could only assume was meant to sound like his old boss. “‘Helen is my dearest friend, but between John Druitt and Nikola Tesla? She was pulled between them, drawn to Nikola’s nature, woo’d by John’s charm. And the only way to save herself the heartache was to take herself out of the situation.’”_

_“Why are you telling me this?”_

_Declan shrugged. “Context?”_

_Lin’s arm fell to her side, “And why would Doc Watson tell you that? Ugh. You are a strange man, Declan MacRae. Sherlock was too. Don’t think I needed to know that my great times three grandmother was in a triangle with Jack the Ripper and the daddy of alternating current. It’s bad enough that I know that they’re still fit and alive.” She rolled her eyes at Declan’s confused manner. “They still have sex. Before, when they were just Helen Magnus and Nikola Tesla, leader of the Sanctuary and her vampire lover, it was cool. Now?” She shuddered. “Just show me how to hack and slash. And this,” she held up the short sword in her left hand, “feels weird compared to this one.” Up came her right hand, holding the blue hilted blade._

Giving up on her work, she pressed play on her music program and just sat, listening to the melodies.

\--

“Nice look, hadn’t realised it was Upside Down Sunday.” Nikola tilted his head, looking at Lin leaning against the wall, her hands on the floor, her feet in the air.

“Bite me,” she answered, her face slowly going red. “Helps me think.”

“What are you thinking about?” he asked as she pushed her heels off the wall, the one time he’d seen her do something gracefully.

“Those,” she replied, pointing at the wall of weapons. “Why are they down here? Why did Magnus leave the Gemini blade here even though the other is missing? Where is it’s partner? Who taught Doctor Watson how to fight? Why did Magnus learn how to fight in the first place? What would have happened if you lot hadn’t used the Source Blood? Why…?” She huffed her fringe out of her eyes. “My brain won’t shut up, and it keeps asking things I don’t know the answer to and it’s pissing me off.”

Tesla grinned and nodded, walking over to the laptop. “So you flooded your brain with as much blood as possible to drown it?” He pressed a few buttons and the music quietened.

“No, I… Ugh… What do you want?” she asked, flexing her feet and smoothing her hair.

“I came to ask how the shield modifications were holding up, but seeing as you’re playing-” he looked down at the screen, scan reading the words, “- ‘My life is ending but at least the music rocks’, it rather defeats the point.” He raised his eyebrow.

Lin held up her phone, “This would tell me if something was dying. It’s not beeping so I’m keeping my tunes.”

Both were quiet, Nikola watching Lin in the mirror warily. She looked nervous. “If we hadn’t used the Source Blood, we wouldn’t be having this conversation. The Sanctuary would be here, Helen would have made sure of its continued success, but I doubt it would be this…” Looking around the room, he tried to find the right words. “There would be far fewer abnormals looking for help.”

Lin nodded sadly. “And probably far fewer people saved in general.” She deposited herself next to the laptop, dragging it onto her crossed legs. “Do you miss being mortal?”

Nikola shook his head. “No. Exertion? Sweating? Having to sleep?” He leant against the wall, his elbows on the barre. “Hangovers suck, being ill is a waste of time, and driving? Being driven?”

“But… aren’t you afraid of outliving everyone?”

“I could have outlived my friends and family as a mortal.”

“So long as you have Magnus?” she asked quietly.

Nikola looked down at her, looking at her laptop. “Really Linnet, what--?”

She shrugged. “I just wanted to be by myself, I guess. Everyone else here has fought in some way, closest I’ve ever been before this weekend was my Death Knight on World of Warcraft. Maxed her out.” He felt her head fall against the wall he leant on. “I don’t really feel like… Like I can talk to any of them out there.”

“So don’t fight,” he told her, squatting next to her.

“Huh, easy for you to say, Mr Sanguine Vampiris.”

“I’m trying to help--”

“I know that,” she interrupted.

“So stop being melodramatic.” He pushed himself up, leaning against the wall and barre again. “That’s why I’m here - melodrama. I’m like some tele-novella.”

She tsked. “You’re worse than that. You’re like a teenager in the throes of misery.”

He looked at her through the reflection in the mirror. “You’re worse than that, you’re a Broadway musical from the eighties.”

“Nineteen eighties or eighteen eighties?”

“Broadway isn’t that old,” he told her, almost laughing at her shocked face. “You know someone older than Broadway as a concept.”

“Shit dude, you’re old!”

He shook his head, catching a glimpse of someone in the doorway. “Watch your mouth, scion. Tell me, do you swear like that all the time, or have I caught you in a mood?”

“You’re just lucky, I guess. What’s up Spaniel?” she asked, looking over to the door.

\--

“Do you dance?” Lin asked suddenly, breaking the silence that had fallen once Nathaniel had left.

“A bit,” he answered, looking at her with a calculating gaze. “Why?”

“I was watching…” She shook her head. “Why did you learn?”

He turned slightly to face her, left arm on the barre, one leg crossed over the other nonchalantly. “Why does anyone learn anything?”

Grinning, she nodded. “You did it to impress someone. Or because someone dared you…”

Walking around the sitting telepath, Nikola tapped on the laptop’s keyboard. Soon enough, the music changed. He held out his hand, to have Lin look at it as if it were covered in slime.

“I don’t touch people,” she explained.

“Then how do you dance?”

She shrugged. “I don’t dance with people, I… I dance by myself.” Looking down at her hands, she tried to ignore him looking at her. “Unless you have some gloves on you…”

“I blocked you for two days before needing to call for help,” he reminded her.

“And I ate more in those two days than I normally do in a week. Do you know how draining it was? I had a headache the whole time.”

“Really? Helen theorised it was something to do with the scorpions.”

She rolled her shoulders and leant over, changing the song from _The Garland Waltz_ to _Blood Hands_ , then standing. Swaying, she shrugged. “Dunno. Probably. Pardon me whilst I twirl.” Stepping away, she spun, one half of a waltzing pair, dancing alone. Her arms aloft, she did natural turns and reverse turns (or as close as she could by herself). The next time she spun past, Nikola joined her, his jacket sleeves over his hands. “You’re doing well for someone who doesn’t dance,” he told her, matter of factly.

She blushed. “I watched a lot of Karen Hardy when I lived at home. She was cool.” Sensing his confusion, she explained how Karen used to be a professional dancer on Strictly Come Dancing, then she used to do Choreography Corner on the weekday show and her love of dance just shone through and, “I loved her to bits. She’s just amazing.”

“I think I just saw your eyes turn into hearts,” Nikola remarked as they just danced with the music, _Blood Hands_ having ended whilst she burbled about Karen Hardy restarting her Samba with her celeb because their microphones got all muddled up but she stayed chill.

“Yeah, because only the great Nikola Tesla is allowed to have heart eyes, every time Helen Magnus enters the room,” Lin countered, grinning.

“Well obviously,” he agreed, smirking. “Everyone gets heart eyes around Helen Magnus.”

“Don’t you ever get jealous?” she asked, her voice small.

He shook his head slowly. “No.”

Lin bowed her head. “Why do I get lumped with people who get jealous?” She looked up at him then at his shoulder. “It’s stupid, don’t worry.”

He nodded carefully. “I would say you can talk to me, but I’m not much of a listener.”

She laughed quietly. “Thanks pops.”

“However,” he continued, “I have been… envious… of others, in the past.” Still they turned, their dance more a foxtrot now than a waltz. “It was my envy, not theirs.”

“Are you saying it isn’t me, it's them?”

Nodding, he smiled, secretive. “You’re part Magnus, part Tesla. There’s always going to be someone jealous.”

Lin shook her head, poking his shoulder. “Prat.”

\--

Dinner was a muted affair. Everyone knew what was to come, what they would be doing tomorrow. 

Tomorrow.

The word loomed over their heads like Damocles’ sword, tainting the evening with an undercurrent of palpable anticipation. Groups were smaller, quieter, the conversations a glimmering thread in the music that surrounded them. Everyone had fish and chips from the chippy down the road, using the posh cutlery that Declan made a habit of only using around Christmas or Easter. Only Helen and Nikola knew that this was the cutlery James would use before An Adventure.

“Thanks for dinner, Declan,” Lin muttered. “I’m gonna go…” She tilted her head. He nodded his understanding, and the four watched her leave.

“Really scared,” Erika muttered, answering her own unasked question.

In dribs and drabs, the staff of the Sanctuary floated away to their various posts, taking mugs of tea and handguns with them. Soon, only Nikola, Helen, Declan and Erika remained in the dining room, sipping their various drinks. Declan looked at his watch. “Half eight.”

Nikola twirled the stem of his glass with one hand, his other arm resting on the back of Helen’s chair, nodding.

“Do we need to do any last minute checks?” Erika asked.

Helen shook her head, looking into her china cup, before looking at Nikola, who’d put down his glass to pour her more tea without her asking. Smiling, she nodded her thanks. He sipped his drink again.

“What is this music?” asked Erika, disliking how quiet they were.

Declan shrugged. “Something from Lin’s part of the music library.”

“It’s from a game,” Helen told them, sipping her tea carefully. “It sounds like something Henry used to play.”

“It’s pretty,” Erika replied.

They all nodded, stilted movements all round.

“Oh bloody hell, this is silly.” Helen put her tea cup down with a clatter, the silver spoon on the saucer rattling delicately. “Declan, take Erika and enjoy some peace and quiet for an hour or so. Nikola and I can keep an eye on everything.”

Erika flushed bright pink, Declan paled slightly. Nikola grinned. “You heard the lady, shoo.” The two younger members looked at each other, looked at their boss, then nodded. 

As one, they stood. “We’ll be back here by twenty three thirty,” Declan told them.

Helen smiled beatifically at them. “Go.”

“Why, Doctor Magnus, if I didn’t know any better, I would say that was a ploy to get me all to yourself,” Nikola muttered when they were finally alone.

She smiled her Mona Lisa smile at him over the rim of her tea cup. “Whatever gave you that idea?”

Smirking, he put the wine glass down, turning his body to face her in her chair. “Helen…?”

The tea cup joined the wine glass as she angled herself to face him. “Nikola,” she replied, almost haughty, the smile betraying her.

His hand crept up her back to her hair, still loose. “Shouldn’t this be in a braid by now?”

Revelling in his hand on her nape, she nodded. “Didn’t want to be the first to leave.”

“Happy to close the party though?”

She smirked, leaning forward, “Well, you know how I am when it comes to a party.” Kissing his lips, her smirk became a full blown smile as he kissed back, his other hand on her cheek, his fingertips close to her ear. Her own hands were held together behind his head, her arms keeping her balanced against him. “I will, however, need to get changed,” she finally told him, minutes later.

“Is that a request for help?” he asked against her neck, his hands on her waist.

Sliding onto his lap, sitting astride his legs, she curled a longer lock of his hair around her finger. “If you can keep your hands to yourself.”

“Never,” he replied, locking his fingers together behind her, pressing his thumbs gently into the small of her back to keep her close. Her lips were bare millimeters away, teasing him as she grinned.

“Thank heavens,” she whispered, before kissing him again. Brushing her tongue lightly against his lips, a thrill sped down her spine when his tongue touched hers, stroking, caressing, moving in counterpoint to her. Fingers splayed on her lower back and between her shoulders, molding her body to his as her hands found their way to his hair, moving through the locks to make them spikier than ever. Desire coursed through her with every touch of his lips on her skin, blunt teeth nipping gently at her pulse point, making every tense muscle roll against him, aching to be closer.

“You have a radio?” he asked as she rolled her hips against him.

“Mm-hmm,” she replied, humming against his lips, before touching the aerial of her radio currently clipped to the waistband of her skirt.

Tugging her head back gently, kisses littered her throat, her small gasps music to his ears. “Then I best assist you in getting ready.” 

“Better hurry up,” she whispered against his jaw, “or this dining room will be seeing a lot more of you.” The resulting surprised squeak as Nikola carried Helen to the door was swallowed by his kisses, her grunt as they fell against the wall fell on deaf ears as she tugged his hair, sucking his earlobe. “Let me down, and take me to bed, now,” she said, rolling her hips, feeling his hands on her arse as she squeezed her thighs around him one last time.

A bruising kiss later, and both had their feet firmly on the floor, walking quickly to their room. Nothing would happen before eleven pm, and both Helen and Nikola knew they had time. Slamming the door, Helen was in his arms again, walking backwards to their bed. “Yes, much better use of our time.”

\--

Panting, wrapped in each other’s arms, Erika looked up at Declan and smiled. “I am definitely feeling more relaxed.”

He smiled back. “I think I could get through this now,” he replied. He looked at his bedside clock. “Ten.”

Erika nodded. “Do you think they’ll wait until morning?”

He thought for a moment, “Probably not.”

“So we’d better get up?” she murmured against his shoulder.

“Probably.” He kissed her head, breathing in the smell of her.

In the relative safety of his room, they listened to the wind outside, the dull roar of cars driving by, the rain clattering against the window panes. “I’ve missed the rain,” she said quietly, her ears picking up the crackle of the wood in the fire.

“No rain?” he asked, stroking her back.

She shook her head. “Tesla’s been working on a way to do it for Helen’s next birthday but…” A shrug. “He might get it done before her two hundred and eightieth birthday.” Glancing up, she explained, “Helen misses it too, although she won’t say anything.”

The rain calmed. “Come on love, we best get ready.”

Scrunching up her nose, Erika burrowed closer to Declan and further under the covers. “But it’s only five past ten.”

“And we need to get ready, have a shower…” His voice dropped slightly at the suggestion of a shower.

Her smile turned wickedly sinful. “A shower does sound like a wonderful idea, now that you mention it.”

\--

“MacRae to all hands. The time is twenty three fifty five. Hold your line for as long as you can, then fall back to the main lab. I have faith in you all. Godspeed.” He turned the radio down. Looking around the hall, he breathed. Magnus and Erika were in the smaller computer lab, Tesla with Lin in the lower levels. Around him were his auxiliary staff, the people who’d do some of the bag and tags further afield. Most were seasoned fighters, soldiers with multiple tours under their belts. “We few, we happy few, we band of brothers…” he murmured, nodding to Charlie to his left, Ash to his right.

The grandfather clock on the stairs started tolling (Declan almost fancied that he could hear Big Ben but knew that was in his head). He counted each sound, each second between each bell. As the clock struck midnight, the proximity alarms rang.

The Queen’s Horses and the Queen’s Men were swarming the Sanctuary grounds.


	10. Chapter 9: The Battle and Other Oddities

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Queen's Horses and The Queen's Men have begun their attack. Who will survive?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Oh my goodness, we're almost at the end. This is the last chapter (with an Epilogue to come in the next few days), and goodness hasn't this been an adventure? Well, it's been something anyways. ;D
> 
> As always, any mistakes are mine. If you notice any, please let me know. Otherwise, I hope you all enjoy!

_Why are we waiting? We are suffocating! Oh why are we waiting for Be--ethlehem?_

“You’re even pitchy when you sing in your head,” Nikola grumbled, having heard Lin’s odd rendition of _Adeste Fideles_ clear in his mind.

“It’s meant to be pitchy, it’s a kids song,” Lin explained, sat on a low wall, her legs swinging back and forth. “But I am like so… SO bored. Is this how every battle for a Sanctuary goes?”

Nikola shrugged. “I’ve only been in three, not including this one.”

“What? But I thought--”

Nikola shook his head. “If a Sanctuary is to be of any good, it’s to be impartial. It’s all in the charter - “No political party may indoctrinate, or in any way sully the good name of, the Sanctuary.” Gregory Magnus was a stickler for words.”

“What happened to him?” she asked, moving off her perch.

He looked sharply at her. “He… This is something Helen should discuss with you.”

“Why?”

“Because I haven’t time to hold your hand through the intricacies of time travel.” A squawk from behind him made him roll his eyes. “And, if you hadn’t noticed, we’re about to go into battle with a Nerf gun and--” He waved a hand in her general direction.

“Gee, thanks Pops. ‘Preciate the faith you have in me,” she muttered.

“Do you blame me? Or do I need to remind you about the electro-scorpions?” he growled, more in jest than real anger.

“Do I need to remind you that you told me my great great great grandmother only bites when asked?” Lin replied, her voice rising in pitch slightly, cheeks flushing. “Did not need that image!”

Nikola tilted his head and looked her whilst she walked away, back to the wall she had been sat on. _I hadn’t realised…_

“Yes, well, Erika thankfully has reminded me about it once already, so...” Lin shook her head. “Just… Drop it, please?” The proximity alarm had been blaring for almost an hour now, but the newly vibrating phone next to Lin did not cheer him up. Swallowing, her hand hovered over the screen, and Nikola almost dreaded what it would say. “They’re through the shield,” she murmured, holding her phone in her left hand, her stun gun in her right.

“I best suit up,” Nikola told her, cricking his neck. Out came his fangs and his claws, the arm movements of a magician showing off his new trick his constant favourite. “Can you see which way they’re coming from?”

“Group of five, coming up from the loading bay,” she told him, feeling the intruders with her mind. “Ugh…”

Fluttering noises behind Nikola comforted him as he knew some of the younger sirens had taken defensive positions around the resident telepath. “Have you told--?”

“She knows,” she replied, interrupting him. “They’ve not reached the lab yet.”

The doors opened. In swarmed the five operatives, guns in hand. “Gentlemen,” Nikola greeted them, smirk in place, eyes black, before attacking, the sirens following his lead. Why they followed him, he didn’t fully understand. Maybe because they had seen him help the matriarch, and how he helped their adopted Linnet-bird, they trusted him? Either way, the sirens swarmed, their song their attack. All five interlopers, charmed by the visceral melody, crashed to the floor as they shot each other at random. They hadn’t even noticed the lightning strikes hurling them backwards. 

It was then Nikola looked down at his suit. Already underneath his flesh was healing, but, “God damn government types. I liked this suit!”

\--

Up in the lab, Helen and Erika watched on the cameras as the Queen’s Men (dressed in dark navy blue) and the Queen’s Horses (dressed in deep bottle green) swarmed into the hallowed halls of the Sanctuary. “Bastards,” Helen muttered, watching as they mowed down every inanimate object in their path.

“It looks like they’re avoiding the main hall, for now,” Erika told her, pointing to the screen with the Sanctuary’s blueprints up like a map, the invading force little red lights converging on a sea of little blue ones.

Helen narrowed her eyes. “That… doesn’t make any sense. They’re trying to capture Declan.” A gun in each hand (two more in her thigh holsters, and two strapped to her back), she walked away from the computer to look at the door. It didn’t help matters - she hadn’t gained x-ray vision overnight, and the door was most definitely opaque.

“We have a large group coming up here,” Erika told her.

“And five are down with Nikola and Lin,” Helen answered, rubbing her temple.

“Three have diverted, going towards the SHU.” Erika grabbed the radio. “Nathaniel, Daisy, you have incoming!”

As Erika warned their vets, the door flew open. With only a moment spared to decide if they were friend or foe, Helen started shooting. Nine men fell at the door before one was able to get a shot off. It grazed Helen’s cheek, making her hiss slightly before she took aim again and fired.

“The sirens are out, following Tesla,” Erika called over the radio to Declan (Helen assumed, as she dropped her empty guns and grabbed the two on her thighs). Still the men came, still she shot, hearing Erika growl and bring forth her lycan appearance as two, three, five men breached the doorway.

Kicking, punching, using the butt of the gun, both women fought hard, stopping anyone who tried to capture them. Panting, looking at the bodies littering the floor (gagging slightly at the smell of blood and gunpowder), Helen tilted her head back to the monitor. “What…?”

Nodding, Erika reverted back to her human form, unfussed by her nakedness (so used now to transforming) as she checked the monitor. The red lights heading down to the SHU had been stopped by a green group, whilst a large group moved quickly to the main hall, from the opposite direction to the one Erika expected, in a pincer maneuver with a smaller group of red outside the doors.

“Declan…?” she called over the radio. Helen’s hand pushed it away from the younger woman’s face.

“He’ll know.”

\--

“ _Gu_ will get you a new one,” Lin told him tiredly from behind her guardians, sending an image of Helen, smiling beautifully, at him, so he’d know who she meant as he fingered the holes in his jacket. “Means gran,” she explained, her head lolling forward.

“Llinos?”

She looked up, her eyes clouded with fatigue but wide at the sound of her real name. “So many new voices. Diff-difficul… cult to--” A yawn. “-- concentrate. Without… Without…”

Gently, Nikola placed the headphones into her ears, before cupping her chin, his own mental defence in place in deference to her. Her blue eyes, normally bright and sparkling, were dull shards of their usual selves. “Music?”

Nodding, she handed her phone to him. “Put... Put on an… anything.”

“Passcode?”

“Square. From the top left.”

“Helen?” he asked, pressing play on the first song he recognised (Mahler’s first symphony, second movement).

Lin nodded, smiling as she recognised the music. “... Fine. Ev… Everyone go… going to… Oh god, I hate yawning like that… Going to the main entrance hall.” She started swaying gently.

“MacRae said to fall back to the main lab.”

She nodded. “He’s not falling back yet.”

“How many?”

Shaking her head, she replied, “Not a clue… Too many?” She chucked her radio at him. “Ask Eri.”

He shook his head. “The main entrance you say? Ladies,” he said, addressing the sirens hovering around them, “shall we?”

Before Lin lost consciousness from all the mental action around her, she heard Erika call over the radio, “The sirens are out, following Tesla.”

\--

Half of Declan’s group were facing the outer doors, the other half the inner door that lead to the sanctum sanctorum. Declan moved between each group, the adrenaline coursing through his veins but unable to do anything with it in any sort of constructive direction yet. He heard Erika’s voice announce, “Nathaniel, Daisy, you have incoming.” Breathing deeply, he held his assault rifle against his chest, watching as Iestyn, a relative new guy, listen at the outer door.

“Anything, Iest?” he asked from his spot in the middle of the hall.

“No sir,” he called back. “Suggest we all defend the inner doors.”

“Negative. The leader of the Queen’s Horses, Rebecca Cassidy, never uses a back door when a front door is available,” Declan explained. The moment Lin had told him who was leading the assault, Declan knew he had to be the one to hold the door. Rebecca had a mean streak the width of the Severn estuary, a love of theatrics and enough anger and energy to power the Blackpool Illuminations for the season. 

And all that negativity was coming for him, her old commanding officer.

There was a pounding at the main doors, a rhythmic thump, almost as if the Sanctuary herself had a heart to beat, in counterpoint to the secondary, less ominous thumping from the inner doors. He was hard pressed to guess which doors would give first.

He heard shots from far away. Magnus maybe? Or Nathaniel in the SHU?

“The sirens are out, following Tesla,” Erika called over the radio.

“Men, we have sirens incoming,” Declan warned them unnecessarily - they had all heard Erika’s warning. Everyone held their weapon tighter, not wanting to miss anything.

They all breathed as one, their pulses slowing as the inner doors opened and a tide of blue and green uniforms rushed in. Declan didn’t even need to think the order, ‘Fire!’, they all moved as one, finding a space and shooting.

“Declan…?” The voice was so small he didn’t hear it over the percussive sound of his gun.

“Sir!” Iestyn yelled. Declan looked over his shoulder. There stood Rebecca in the remnants of the relatively new doors (he was almost impressed, those doors had withstood a lot more abuse in his time here as head of the Sanctuary). The men watching the outer door fired at the enemy trying to flood the room. More often than not, they’d stagger and fall at the force of each impact.

Rebecca didn’t. Rebecca moved forward, steadfast, a nasty sneer on her face as if she had already won.

“Surrender now, Sergeant MacRae, and you may yet see your Sanctuary survive.”

He shook his head, “Never!”

The bullets slowed her down, but her epidermis was so that, when shot with a high speed projectile, they bounced off her harmlessly, the kinetic energy behind each round the only thing making her stagger. “Come on, Sarge, we need you. You could make us great again!”

“And be subject to a fraudulent government who make deals in the dark, behind closed doors? No,” he answered, shooting still.

She kept walking forward, and Declan kept aiming for her heart, knowing it wouldn’t help much but still hoping it would do something. The mean sneer had mutated into a smirk as she grabbed the barrel of his rifle. “Keep shooting sir, I’m sure you’ll hit something soon.”

Seeing no way out, he head butted her, hearing the gunfire around him slow as men stopped rushing forwards to their doom. Had they learnt, or had Declan’s men mown them all down?

“Jesus fucking Christ! You keep doing that!” Rebecca complained.

“You keep trying to force me away from my home,” he explained, his voice massive in the now silent hall; the gunfire had stopped.

Rebecca shook her head carefully, worried slightly at the amount of blood rushing from her nose (Declan didn’t think it was much at all, but she never had been one for a physical fight and had forgotten how her body reacted - bloody noses weren’t her style), “No! Not force, we want you willingly.”

“How willingly is three dozen men and women to move me?” Declan asked, disgusted.

Rebecca shrugged. “We need you.”

“The Sanctuary needs me more,” he replied, shooting her at point blank range. It did nothing, except make Declan jump when the bullet ricocheted. “Find someone else.”

“No, we want you.” Rebecca looked around her; so many people littered the floor, even one or two of Declan’s own team. The sneer softened; Declan knew an idea had come to mind. “A duel. When I win, you leave the Sanctuary.”

“And when I win?” Declan asked warily.

She shrugged. “If you win, which is doubtful, I tell my superiors that I couldn’t get you onboard.”

Declan shook his head. “No. If I win, you tell your superiors that the Sanctuary network is off limits, wherever they go. You stop trying to destroy my house, and I get left alone to carry on with my work with the abnormals.”

She nodded. “Fine, but you won’t. Name your weapon.”

“The sabres, on the wall in my office. We fight with those, in a location of my choosing.”

Rebecca raised her eyebrow. “You really want to leave tonight, don’t you Sarge?”

“No, Bex, I don’t,” he replied, shaking his head. “But you have an unfair advantage when it comes to bullets.” He brought his radio to his lips. “All units, stand down.”

\--

They walked to his chosen spot, a half hour later, Rebecca and the few survivors of her incursion following behind Declan, his men bringing up the rear. Erika had relayed a message that she would be getting the swords from his office, whilst Lin remained incommunicado. Tesla had joined him, the sirens hovering behind the whole group like winged messengers awaiting a response.

“Lin?” he asked the vampire.

He rolled his eyes. “Collapsed. Too many people.”

Declan nodded his head sadly. “I...” He sighed. “I expected that.”

“Expected?” Tesla spat. “By the time she got to her music, she was effectively a zombie. She thought she’d only be down for a short while, but I doubt it.”

He nodded again. “And…?” He tilted his head toward Tesla, eyebrows raised as he silently asked about Magnus and Erika.

“Safe,” was all he said, as he finally recognised the darkened hall they were following. Opening the door for the younger man, Tesla turned on the lights with a small, bright arc of lightning to the hanging fluorescent lights.

“Mate, don’t do that,” Declan told him. “These lights are so fussy I’m surprised they haven’t exploded yet.”

Tesla took a step back. “Mate?” he asked, hand on his chest. “Oh, how you wound me with your casual disregard of language!”

“Who gave him a dictionary?” Rebecca muttered. He hissed, but she just shook her head. “Don’t worry vamp, I’ll get you next.”

“And my little dog too?”

“Why, is she here?” she asked, looking around. “I’d heard through the grapevine a lycan would be arriving here soon, but with the only _sanguine vampiris_ still around? Almost too good for words.”

“I don’t like her,” he told Declan, turning his back to her, facing the wall of weapons. “Win.”

“I intend to,” he answered, staring Rebecca down.

“Nikola.” Magnus and Erika were at the door, their faces hidden in the shadows. Nodding, he took the weapon from Magnus’ hands. Declan didn’t hear what she whispered, but the feral look in Tesla’s eyes was enough to freak anyone out.

“Declan?” Erika stopped by his elbow.

“Thank you,” he murmured as he took the sword from her.

“Be careful?” she offered, smiling.

“I will be if you will be,” he replied, wishing he could gently tap her nose with the pommel of the sabre, or kiss her cheek, touch her hair, anything to calm himself. Looking across the room, he saw Tesla throw the sword to Rebecca. She was just as comfortable holding that sword as she had been fifteen years ago, on a different floor in a distant place.

“First blood?” she suggested, drawing the sword out of its scabbard.

Nodding, Declan did the same. “Out of three?”

Rebecca raised an eyebrow. “If you say so.”

They shook hands, firm but impersonal, before stepping back. Conscious of the people spectating, Declan and Rebecca circled each other, both stopping for a second as a voice announced, “Ladies and gentlemen, tonight, for one night only, Declan MacRae verses (what’s her name?) Rebecca Cas--Cassidy (shit, seriously?). Who wins? They decide. First blood drawn ends the round (wait, do they do fights like it’s boxing or what?). And now, for your aural pleasure, have some fight music.”

“What is this?” Rebecca asked, circling Declan again.

He shook his head. “When it comes to Llinos Price, I just roll with it.”

“Telepath?” she asked.

“Why d’you want to know?” he responded.

She shrugged, before slashing her sword toward him. Parrying, he fought back, the clash of steel on steel echoing through the hall. Back and forth they moved until, “Ah!” Rebecca staggered backwards, hand over her arm for a moment, to pull away with a thin smear of crimson across her palm.

Declan rotated his wrist, the light flashing dangerously on the blade.

“That’s one point to our defender and all round good guy, Declan MacRae. Will he keep the Mare in her place, or will she kick back? No, don’t think that metaphor worked. Don’t mind me guys, just get her, Declan,” Lin’s voice called over the intercom.

“Do all your underlings call you Declan, Sarge? Or is she _special_?” she asked, the two back to circling again.

Declan recoiled. “She’s almost half my age Bex!”

“So?” she asked, lunging forward. Steel clashed on steel again, metallic zings dancing through the air as the blades parried. Their movements were precise, concise, no wasted effort. 

Rebecca drew blood next, her blade sharp across his cheek. Her sneer was victorious.

“One all. One step closer to winning the match, the title, the freedom of being Sanctuary Head of House or untold years in service to faceless bureaucrats who have no idea what an abnormal really is?” Lin’s voice deepened. “You win this, Declan MacRae.”

“I thought commentators were meant to be impartial?” Rebecca sneered, directing her words to the ceiling.

Lin didn’t answer. Declan chuckled darkly, watching Rebecca. She hadn’t changed her fighting style - always attacking first. He had learnt - _Watch, Declan... Wait_ \- he defended. Matched thrust and parry with his own movements, waiting for her guard to fall.

Dropping her arm was her downfall. Quicker than his grey hair belied, he surged forward, slashing down across her chest before she could raise her sword again. There, under her chin and on her collarbone, bloomed crimson patches.

“Two one to Declan. This last one for the match…”

This round was fiercer, almost feral in nature, as Rebecca clawed with her sword. It was all for naught, however. Declan kept calm, watched as she telegraphed her moves. Was this how someone saw the near future? Brief flashes before they became reality? As odd as it was, he kept his head. One last slash of his sword and...

“Declan MacRae wins! Rebecca Cassidy loses!”

“Never!” she screamed, rushing forward to stop suddenly, pain spreading quickly through her whole body from her stomach. Declan’s eyes went wide as they both looked down. His sword had sliced through her clothes, her abdomen, her back. “Wha…?” She fell to her knees. “But…”

“Out of the way!”

\--

“What we gonna do with her then?” Lin asked, looking through the window at the leader of the fighting force, small and shrunken as she slept in her hospital bed. The sword had gone through without hitting anything major, but it was still touch and go whilst Magnus worked tirelessly to save her. Now she lay pale, deflated, uninteresting.

“Nothing much,” Declan replied, his arms crossed over his chest. “Give her time to rest, then send her back.”

“Is that wise?” Erika asked, the other side of him, tapping on a tablet to monitor her vitals. “She could have seen Helen. She definitely saw Tesla, actually knew who he was.”

Lin shook her head, not taking her eyes off their patient (prisoner?). “Nah, the Queen’s Horses and the Queen’s Men know you, Tesla and Will are alive, just…” She looked up at Erika. “They don’t know Magnus is alive.”

Declan shook his head, half a conversation behind. “No, she’s a-- She’s a nasty piece of work, but we shook hands. I won.”

“She also tried to take you down after you won,” Lin pointed out. “And she got your face, which isn’t cool at all.”

He rolled his eyes. “Flesh wound,” he explained, smiling at Erika. She smiled back, touching his other cheek; Lin pretended to gag.

“Exceedingly mature, Llinos,” Erika intoned, her big eyes wider than usual.

“Someone needed to bring the tone down,” she replied, looking at Rebecca again as she shrugged. “Who exactly is she anyways?”

“When I first knew her, she was Lance Corporal Cassidy,” Declan told them. “We worked a few ops together.”

“She doesn’t look like she’s anywhere near your age,” Lin observed. “Is it because she’s got bulletproof skin?”

Erika nodded. “Her epidermis is resilient so she looks closer to my age than Declan’s.”

“Ah, she is a few years younger,” he confirmed, his cheeks momentarily flushing.

“Tell them the best bit,” they heard her say, her voice thin and reedy.

“What’s the best bit?” Lin asked, wary of the possible answer.

Rebecca pointed to Declan. “If I hadn’t been there, your boss wouldn’t be here today.”

The two Sanctuary women tilted their heads, Lin shaking her’s. “And? One good deed like a decade ago doesn’t make up for the fact you tried to kill him just now.”

She tried throwing her hands in the air, then any sort of movement. “For fuck’s sake..." she hissed, her hands bound to the bed frame. "Declan, when I get out of here…”

He shook his head and turned away. “Come on ladies, we have a Sanctuary to repair.”

\--

“Well then, Nikola, where shall we go?” Helen asked, almost sitting on his lap in the loveseat in their room, holding a tablet in front of her. “Bangui, as planned?”

He shook his head. rubbing the stem of his glass between his thumb and fingers.

“Greece? That nice little cafe you mentioned?”

He looked at her, his blue eyes boring into hers. “We left the _rinascorpa reticuli_ in that cold hell hole. And...” He left the rest unspoken, but she knew what he meant.

She put the tablet down. “Shall we go back? Just us two, before heading home?”

“Home?”

Tilting her head, she smiled. “Yes…? That place in Hollow Earth where we live and sleep and work?”

He touched her hair, a long lock having curled on her shoulder. “You rarely call it home.”

“Yes I do,” she argued.

He shook his head, languidly combing his fingers through her hair. “Not really. It’s usually, ‘My Sanctuary,’ or, ‘The Hollow Earth Sanctuary,’ or just ‘Hollow Earth’.”

Helen blinked. “Oh.”

“Anywhere you are is home to me though,” he told her, saccharine sweetness dripping from every word as he dropped the back of his head onto her shoulder and looked up at her through his fluttering eyelashes.

“Ugh, Nikola, you’re getting positively soft in your old age,” Helen admonished, laughing gently at his antics.

“Soft? Moi?” He rested the back of his hand theatrically against his brow. “Oh, how you wound me.”

“Melodramatics, sir, will get you nowhere.” She kissed the crown of his head, and took a breath. “In my… continued efforts to be more… more open about my feelings,” she said in a rush, “I am quite happy when I know you’re in my general area.”

He sat up and turned to face her. “Why, Helen Magnus, are you admitting to having feelings for me that aren’t lust driven?”

“I’ve always had feelings for you that aren’t lust driven,” she told him. “Aggravation, anger, annoyance--”

“I’m having the alphabetised list?”

She shook her head, laughing again. “Better that than horrifically worded sonnets on my continued feelings of ire and frustration.”

“You always were a better scientist than poet,” he mused.

“I have you around, don’t I? The physicist with his way with words?” She became haughtier in attitude, resting her arm along the back of the love seat. “‘Kiss me and I’ll save your life.’ Pretty sure that’s what you said to me in Rome.”

“Augh, I was young and stupid then,” he complained. “Hold anything but that against me.”

“You were a hundred and fifty years old!”

“But I looked good for it,” he countered.

“Incorrigible, that’s what you are.”

“Eh, you love me.” He rested his head on her shoulder again, her hand coming to play with his hair.

She sighed. “Yes, I do.” She kissed the top of his head again before looking back at the tablet, her heart just a touch lighter.

\--

_A few days later..._

“How many are we taking home?” Nikola asked, looking over the sea of electro-scorpions amassed in the cavernous room.

Helen flicked her braid from off her shoulder, looking over at the massive perspex box they had brought with them. “Four. Tony will be here later to gather the rest, and will distribute them equally between the main Sanctuaries and some of the outposts here in the UK.”

“He wanted some of the sirens to stay in Pembroke,” he told her, amassing a pool of electricity in his hand and dipping it low into the horde of scorpions. “MacRae refused him.”

“I should bloody well hope so!” Helen replied, aghast. “Tony can barely keep his house in check with non-sentient abnormals. How in the world would he be with sentient beings?”

Nikola gasped. Two scorpions were in his hand, but due to their selective breeding, he wasn’t one hundred percent sure they had a male and female. They should capture a few more, for the good of the species, he’d argue, if Helen had asked. He put his other hand down and generated another pool of bait. “You might want to bring that box closer,” he told her, lifting up his scorpion filled hand. “Quickly. I have no desire to be stung again any time soon.”

Holding the box open, Helen watched, fascinated, as the two scorpions trundled around the box, chittering away when they realised there was no escape. Another two went in a few moments later. Closing the lid, Nikola watched them, wide eyed, as they hissed and snapped their little claws, their tails trying to sting the box, but to no avail.

“Well, that was… shockingly easy,” Helen finally said in the car. She’d been holding that one in since he’d suggested they travel back to West Wales together ( _“The_ rinascorpa reticuli _don’t deserve that,”_ had been his exact words).

“And that was hideously forced,” he answered, the scorpions firmly in place in the boot. They had borrowed Lin’s personal car, promising not to damage it in any way, with instructions to fill the tank before they got back. “Where are we going next?”

She shrugged. “London?”

“Then home?”

Looking at him, the smile she gave him was the biggest and brightest he had seen in a long time. She nodded. Home. 

That sounded good.

\--


	11. Epilogue

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sometimes a story needs a bow at the end to tie up loose ends.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here we are, at the end. Thank you so much for everyone who's read/kudos'd/commented (especially the comments)/asked me random things on Tumblr... Basically all the things that make a writer feel all warm and gooey inside. ♥
> 
> So, as usual, any mistakes are mine - if you find any, hit me up. Otherwise, lemme know what you think, and thank you again for coming on this journey with me. XD

Llinos stood wide eyed at the cavern entrance of the Sanctuary in Hollow Earth. It all looked so bright, so green, so lush. Off in the distance she could see a waterfall, and some abnormals that must normally be huge, but looked so tiny far away. Hitching her backpack tighter, she started walking.

It looked like it should be utterly quiet, but she could hear bird song, the call of different beasts, someone laughing in the distance. It was nice, being somewhere so different to home but knowing the most dangerous thing there was protected in its own environment. And that the second most dangerous thing was the human doctor watching everything.

She had nominally come down to pick up some tech from Henry, but any excuse to see Helen and Nikola was a welcome one. Things had settled quietly between the three of them, in a good way. Once they got past her not going to university - “Some of the best things that happened to me happened in university! I wouldn’t be the vampire I am without Oxford.” - and she got past them being them - “Seriously, do you two ever not have sex?!” (she asked Nikola that, Helen was amazing ( _so amazing!_ ) but still a bit scary at times) - they had found their own niche.

This was her first time to Hollow Earth though. Usually, Nikola would come up to London (although there had been that time Erika and Lin had to visit Tokyo and he met them there in the fanciest kimono - Erika said she didn’t remember much after the fifth bar they went to but they all had fun), sometimes Helen could tear herself away for a day or two too, but after a few years Lin had decided she wanted to visit.

To say nothing of wanting to get away from Alice and all her baby teeth falling out, and talk of the tooth fairy, and, “Look at my big teeth! I’m going to be like mama!” She was a cute kid, but Lin was very much in her unbroody stage of always living. No kids, ever. Auntie maybe, mother? Yuck.

“Should’ve packed roller skates,” she muttered to the air, tramping along. She was glad there weren’t many insects along the path; after their run in with the electro-scorpions she had been put off creepy crawlies for life. Still, the greenness of the whole place took her breath away. Really, how could it be so green? Did the lights give off more energy for photosynthesis down here? Were the plants just greener to aid photosynthesis? How did she even remember photosynthesis having anything to do with light? Biology had always been a conundrum to her.

“There should be a warning when you come down,” she decided. “Don’t wear high heels because your ankles will hate you for it.” She looked down at her feet, and grimaced. “Ok, maybe sandals weren’t the best idea either, especially after that sewer. Yuck.”

_You know we can hear you, yes?_

She grinned. _Come on, pops, I needed to give you both ample warning time to get dressed and get decent. Or at least one of the two._ She’d got past them having sex, didn’t mean she couldn’t (or wouldn’t) take the piss out of them every now and then.

_Helen said she’d be meeting you by the main entrance._

Lin’s brow furrowed as she walked. _Why didn’t she tell me?_

_You’ll have to ask her yourself when you see her._

_Uh, ok. Weird._

The vampire’s laugh in her head did nothing to allay that feeling of misgiving that had sprung up.

“Oh my God, finally. How far away from everything is this door even?” Lin cried when she got to the building’s entrance.

“Llinos, we could hear you muttering from a mile away,” Helen told her, smiling politely.

“And I kept you all entertained with my awesomeness, I know,” she replied, grinning. “And you are?”

“Oh ha ha, Lin,” Henry replied. “It's a short walk. What took you so long?”

The glare she gave him would have made mere mortals quake, but Henry, inured to both the Magnus Glare and Tesla Stare, just shrugged and smiled. She rolled her eyes, and said, “Not all of us know the secret shortcuts yet, Fosse.” He blinked. She deflated. “Fosse? Bob Ff… Ugh, never mind. Please tell me there’s somewhere I can crash out for a few zillion hours?”

Helen shook her head and laughed. “Come on, we’ve a lot to get done before you go back.”

“Back? Literally just walked thr-- Wow.” Now she was inside, every word in her mind stopped. “Hu-- How?”

“A hundred and thirteen years of planning,” Helen remarked, her hand on Lin’s backpack.

She nodded. “I meant, how did you paint the ceiling?”


End file.
